976 MINERALS YEARBOOK, 1985 
 
Legislation and Government Pro. grams.—The Government's National
Defense
Stockpile goal for titanium sponge metal remained at 195,000 tons.3 The Government
stockpile inventory in December contained 25,965 tons of specification metal,
including the 4,500 tons of sponge contracted for by the General Services
Administration in 1983, of which 139 tons was added to inventory in 1984,
and 4,361 tons in 1985. The stockpile also contained 10,866 tons of nonspecification
material. 
The Government stockpile goal for rutile was unchanged at 106,000 tons. The
total rutile stockpile inventory at yearend was 39,186 tons. 
On July 8, the President approved National Security Council (NSC) recommendations
for modernizing the strategic and critical materials stockpile. Under the
NSC proposal, the stockpile would be structured into two tiers. Tier I would
contain materials required by military, industrial, and essential civilian
users during a military conflict that would not be available from domestic
or reliable foreign sources. Tier II would contain a supplemental reserve
of material already possessed by the Government. According to the NSC guidelines,
goals for titanium would be 3,900 tons in tier land 21,100 tons in tier II.
At yearend, this proposal was under consideration by the Congress. The Department
of Defense Authorization Act, 1986 (Public Law 99- 
145), signed by the President on November 
8, 1985, stated that no action may be taken before October 1, 1986, to implement
or administer any reduction in a stockpile goal in effect on October 1, 1984.

A final dumping margin of nearly 84% was found by the U.S. Department of
Commerce on 150,000 pounds of sponge imported from the U.S.S.R. between August
1, 1982, and July 31, 1983. This decision means that the importers of that
sponge will be assessed antidumping duties amounting to 83.96% of the price
paid, and that future imports of sponge from the U.S.S.R. will be subject
to a deposit equivalent to the antidumping margin, until publication of the
findings for the next annual review period, August 1, 1983, to July 31, 1984.
No U.S. imports for consumption of titanium sponge from the U.S.S.R. have
been reported since the third quarter of 1983. 
A U.S. Geological Survey press release on June 28, 1985, reported on potentially
significant concentrations of ilmenite and aircon in offshore deposits 5
to 10 miles off the southeastern coast from Georgia to Virginia. Concentrations
in some areas were at least 3% to 10% heavy minerals, compared with 3% to
5% heavy minerals in typical commercial onshore deposits. However, more work
will be required to determine what commercial potential the deposits may
have. 
 
DOMESTIC PRODUCTION 
 
Concentrates.—U.S. producers of ilmenito were Associated Minerals
(USA)
Ltd. 
Inc. (AMU) at Green Cove Springs, FL, and 
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. Inc. at 
Starke and Highland, FL. 
As in 1984, AMU was the only producer of natural rutile concentrate. Kerr-McGee
Chemical Corp. continued production of synthetic rutile at its 100,000-ton-per-year
Mobile, AL, plant. 
Ferrotitanium.—Ferrotitanium was produced by Ashland Chemical Co.,
Columbus, OH; Reactive Metals and Alloys Corp., West Pittsburg, PA; and Shieldalloy
Corp., Newfield, NJ. Most of the production consisted of the 70% titanium
grades. 
Metal.—RMI Co., Niles, OH, the second largest U.S. titanium producer,
built a $4 million welded-tube mill in an effort to expand the sales of its
titanium mill products to the nonaerospace market. Tube sales for heat exchangers,
water desalination 
equipment, and chemical processing systems were seen by RMI executives as
the largest potential growth area for commercially pure titanium in the next
decade. Initial capacity of about 1 million pounds per year of welded tubing
was planned. 
Wyman-Gordon Co., Worcester, MA, took over management of titanium sponge
producer International Titanium Inc. (ITI), Moses Lake, WA, by increasing
its holding in ITI to 80% from 41% at an additional cost of $8.4 million
after investing $12.3 million in the company in 1984. Nearly all of the remaining
shares in ITI are held by Mitsui & Co. Ltd. of Japan. Wyman-Gordon
indicated
it planned to become an integrated titanium producer and to expand later
into titanium mill products, and earlier in the year had offered to purchase
all of the shares of ITI held by Mitsui and Ishizuka Research Inc. of Japan;
Titanium Industries Inc., Fairfield, NJ; and ITI founder Stephen