Canada’s Argex Titanium has been given conditional approval by the Toronto Stock Exchange for a private placement aimed at raising gross proceeds of Can$3.5 million to fund the completion of engineering on a proposed titanium dioxide (TiO2) plant in Valleyfield, Quebec.

The Montreal-headquartered company said its newly developed production process is set to disrupt the $16 billion global TiO2 industry, claiming it provides significant cost and environmental advantages over current technologies.

At last month’s Annual General Meeting, Argex revealed its latest plans for the project, which has been in preparation since the positive results of a feasibility study in 2013. The company said that it had hired a few additional engineers and contracted with Canadian firms WSP and SNC Lavalin in March to begin basic engineering. In addition, different ore feedstocks have been tested and are yielding consistent product, which Argex said meets or exceeds industry specifications.

The project is now in the advanced planning stages for construction of a 90,000 t/y plant to be commissioned by the end of 2019. A technology center, which will be a smaller scale replica of the commercial plant, will also be built in 2018. A site for the center, which will produce 12 t/y of the pigment, will be announced in the second half of 2017.

Argex is currently in discussions to license the technology and the company’s management is negotiating purchase agreements with large industry players for offtake from the first train’s production of 30,000 t/y.

Annual global consumption of TiO2 is 6 million t, according to Argex, which said it will initially produce less than 2% of demand worldwide.