Rabat – Canadian mining company Steadright Critical Minerals has secured a mining licence for its TitanBeach titanium project in Morocco, the company announced Thursday.
The project is located in the southern Guelmim-Oued Noun region, near Tan-Tan, covering an approved area of approximately 16 square kilometres.
Morocco granted the licence through NSM Capital Sarl, a company in which Steadright holds a 76.5% stake, the company said. The approved area measures roughly 4 kilometres by 4 kilometres.
Steadright CEO Matt Lewis said the approval represents a significant first for Morocco in terms of the size of the area covered by a mining approval of this kind.
“If anyone takes a look at the map of Morocco, they have a really big coast on the west and to the north. There has never been a mining licence given on the beach into the water, ever, in the history of Morocco,” Lewis said in an interview with Mining IR.
The TitanBeach project covers 192 square kilometres in total. Exploration carried out in 2025 identified sands potentially containing ilmenite, titanomagnetite, magnetite, leucoxene, and rutile.
The exploration results showed iron oxide (Fe2O3) values up to 79.5%, and titanium dioxide (TiO2) values up to 14.9%.
Titanium is considered a critical mineral by the US, European Union, and Canada because of its importance to defense, aerospace, medical, and industrial technologies.
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The metal is known for being strong while relatively lightweight and highly resistant to corrosion. It is mainly used in two forms. Titanium dioxide, which is widely used as a white pigment, and titanium metal, which is often combined with other metals to produce strong alloys for aerospace and other applications.
Lewis said the company aims to move quickly toward production, with the next steps including securing an environmental licence and finalizing its production plans.
Dipl.-Ing. L. Jouak, CEO of NSM Capital, said the license “provides the foundation for the next phase of development of a mineral development project of significant scale and, over the long term, creates substantial opportunities for investment, industrial development and the creation of sustainable value in Morocco.”
Steadright is also exploring opportunities beyond TitanBeach through a binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the historic Goundafa Mine in Morocco. The mine stopped operating during the French protectorate period, and the company plans to carry out exploration there.
Steadright said the mining licence marks an important step in advancing the TitanBeach project and its potential to develop titanium and iron-bearing mineral resources in Morocco.
