Key Highlights

• Besides the 8.7 tonnes produced, IperionX ended the quarter holding 19 tonnes of finished powder and 207 tonnes of scrap feedstock.

• It also reported validating furnace capacity above its 200-tonne-a-year target after a 63-hour sequence of back-to-back deoxygenation runs totalling 1.6 tonnes.

• The company made 1,500 titanium fasteners in the period and commissioned the first of two additional sintering furnaces.

• The second is installed and due for commissioning in the December 2026 quarter.

How far has IperionX (ASX:IPX) moved from pilot-scale titanium production towards a commercial operation? According to its September 2026 quarterly report, released on 29 October 2026, the company produced 8.7 tonnes of titanium powder in the quarter, up from 1.4 tonnes in the June quarter. That is a sharp step up, though it remains well short of the roughly 200 tonnes a year run-rate the company is targeting by the end of calendar 2026, a goal it says is subject to completing ramp-up and optimisation work.

What IperionX does

IperionX is a US-focused titanium and critical minerals company with a primary listing on the ASX (ticker IPX) and American depositary shares quoted on Nasdaq. Its Business rests on two ideas: a patented hydrogen-assisted metallothermic reduction process, known as HAMR, which turns titanium scrap into powder, and a pipeline of heavy mineral sands in the south-eastern United States that could eventually Supply feedstock.

IperionX argues that recycling scrap and using powder metallurgy can cut both cost and energy use. The company is not yet a material Revenue generator. Its income to date has largely come from government-funded programmes and early customer orders, so the Investment case depends on execution rather than current earnings.

The September quarter in detail

The company's Virginia Facility is the centre of activity. Besides the 8.7 tonnes produced, IperionX ended the quarter holding 19 tonnes of finished powder and 207 tonnes of scrap feedstock. It also reported validating furnace capacity above its 200-tonne-a-year target after a 63-hour sequence of back-to-back deoxygenation runs totalling 1.6 tonnes.

Downstream Manufacturing is progressing too. The company made 1,500 titanium fasteners in the period and commissioned the first of two additional sintering furnaces. The second is installed and due for commissioning in the December 2026 quarter. A 300-tonne press commissioned in May 2026 had already tripled powder metallurgy capacity.

A newer platform, GenX, processed more than 500 kilograms of powder across four continuous runs lasting 41 hours. The company says that, against batch HAMR on a like-for-like run-time basis, it delivered six times the throughput and more than 75 per cent lower power use. These are company-reported figures from small-scale runs.

Government support and customers

United States government backing is a defining feature of the story. The Quarterly Report lists a US$47.1 million award under the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment programme, which is fully obligated, and a US$12.7 million award under Defense Production Act Title III. Together they support a pathway to 1,400 tonnes a year of capacity. The government has also transferred about 290 tonnes of titanium scrap at no cost.

Task Order 2 under a US$99 million SBIR Phase III contract vehicle has a base value of US$18.5 million, with Options that could lift it to US$25.4 million. Task Orders 1 and 2 together total about US$19.8 million, leaving US$79.2 million of the ceiling uncommitted. A ceiling is not a guarantee of orders.

On the commercial side, the company reports a follow-on US Army purchase order for fasteners used on Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and trailers, and a prototype order for large titanium track pins from American Rheinmetall Vehicles. Components for a Carver Pump order are in final customer testing.

Funding and balance sheet

At 30 September 2026, IperionX held US$63.0 million in cash, compared with US$35.2 million three months earlier. Remaining obligated, reimbursable government funding was US$33.7 million, giving total available Liquidity of about US$96.7 million. Net operating cash outflow for the quarter was US$12.6 million.

The cash rise followed a July 2026 US public offering of 2,275,000 American depositary shares at US$21.98 each, raising about US$50.0 million gross and roughly US$46.1 million net. Directors also bought about US$1.9 million of shares on market that month. Equity raising dilutes existing holders.

The Titan project and Atlas acquisition

Upstream, the Titan project in Tennessee has a US government-supported definitive feasibility study completed in June 2026. It estimated an after-tax net present value, discounted at 8 per cent, of US$813 million, an after-tax internal rate of return of 39.4 per cent, a payback of 3.6 years and US$1.9 billion of cumulative after-tax free Cash Flow over an initial 14-year mine life. These are modelled outputs that rest on assumptions about prices, costs and permitting, not reported earnings.

IperionX also completed the US$3 million Acquisition of Atlas on 1 July 2026, adding about 70 acres of stockpiles, 180 acres of pre-stripped mineralisation and existing power, water, gas and rail infrastructure. A combined Atlas and Titan economic assessment is under way.

Sector conditions and competitive position

Titanium is a strategic metal for aerospace, defence and industrial uses, and Washington has been explicit about wanting a domestic supply chain.

Competition is substantial. Established producers in China, Japan, Russia and Kazakhstan dominate sponge and mill products, and other Western firms are pursuing alternative titanium powder and recycling technologies. IperionX's differentiator is its low-energy process and its alignment with US defence procurement, but scale, consistency and qualification with customers remain unproven at volume.

Index status, risks and what to watch

IperionX was added to the S&P/ASX 200 effective 22 September 2025, and it does not appear among the additions or removals in the the index provider announcements of December 2025 or March, June and September 2026.

Key risks include ramp-up delays, furnace downtime of the kind noted in the June quarter, dependence on government funding and policy, Commodity and technology risk, and the possibility of more dilution. The company also announced on 3 August 2026 a proposed redomiciliation to a Texas Parent Company with stock listed directly on Nasdaq.

The company gives no formal financial guidance.