Anniston Army Depot is about to become part of America’s effort to break China’s grip on the minerals that power modern weapons.

Titan Mining Corporation, the only end-to-end producer of natural flake graphite in the United States, has been conditionally selected by the U.S. Army to build graphite purification plants on military land, according to details first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

One of the two sites is Anniston. The other is Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas. Together they would form the first commercial critical-minerals processing operation ever sited on U.S. defense installations. China controls roughly 90% of the world’s graphite processing — the material inside the lithium-ion batteries that run drones, vehicles, and the AI-driven weapon systems the Pentagon is racing to field.

Much American-mined graphite is still shipped overseas for refining and shipped back, a dependency the Army is now moving to close. As Army officials told WSJ, there is always a risk that China cuts off access to the minerals.

“There is a ticking clock here,” Jeff Waksman, the Army’s principal deputy assistant secretary for installations, energy and the environment told WSJ. “We recognize that there is always a risk that China can cut us off from these minerals.”

Under the Army’s new Strategic Capital Initiatives program, Titan’s subsidiary Empire State Mines would design, finance, build, and operate the plants on leased federal ground for up to 50 years, bearing the entire cost. The Army keeps the land and takes infrastructure improvements instead of cash — its return is a more resilient domestic supply chain.

Anniston is the secondary site at roughly 97 acres, behind Pine Bluff’s 245-acre primary parcel, but the label understates the logic. The depot is already one of the Army’s premier heavy-industrial installations, built for exactly this kind of complex, hazardous work, and it has anchored American military readiness for generations.

Next-generation mineral processing there continues that mission.

Alabama’s congressional delegation sees what is at stake.

“Domestic critical mineral production is incredibly important to 21st century defense,” U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Saks), whose district includes the depot, said in a statement to Yellowhammer News.

“I am very excited to see Anniston Army Depot at the forefront of this issue. This agreement with Empire State Mines for graphite will facilitate huge boosts for both our country’s national security and Alabama’s local economy.”

Construction is targeted for the second half of 2027. The selection remains conditional, with negotiations underway, so Anniston’s exact role and timeline will firm up as the deal advances, possibly on a later schedule than Arkansas, but the direction is crystal clear.