Veteran Manufacturing and Operations Executive to Lead Arkansas-Based US Vanadium, the Only U.S. Producer of High-Purity Vanadium
Darryll Castle Assumes Chairmanship of the US Vanadium Board of Directors
HOT SPRINGS, AR – September 1, 2026 – US Vanadium LLC (“US Vanadium” or the “Company“), majority owned by TechMet USA Inc., today announced the appointment of Michael Belote, D.Eng., as Chief Executive Officer, effective September 1, 2026. Dr. Belote succeeds Darryll Castle, who has been appointed Chairman of the US Vanadium Board of Directors. Mark Smith, the Company’s former Chairman, continues to serve as a member of the Board.
Dr. Belote brings more than 20 years of operations and manufacturing leadership in high-hazard, high-precision industrial environments, including specialty chemicals, energetics, and high-purity piping systems. He joins US Vanadium from Georg Fischer Piping Systems, where he served as Senior Vice President and Head of Operations for the Industrial Group, with responsibility for four manufacturing plants in Arkansas, California, and Pennsylvania and a more than $300 million annual P&L. Before that, he spent 16 years with GE’s Wind Power Division in progressively senior operations roles, including General Manager and Plant Director of a 500-person, multi-site operation in central Arkansas, and later as a global operations leader mentoring plant general managers across China, Spain, India, Canada, and Denmark. He began his career as a process and automation engineer at Remington Arms Co., Inc.
Dr. Belote holds a Doctorate of Engineering from Texas A&M University and both a Master of Science in Operations Management and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Arkansas. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt and holds six patents.
“US Vanadium occupies a rare position — it is the only domestic producer of the high-purity vanadium that America’s defense, aerospace, and energy industries depend on,” said Dr. Belote. “My focus will be on operational excellence, safety, and disciplined scale-up: running our Arkansas plants reliably, growing capacity to meet the demand we are seeing from titanium alloy and defense customers, and building on the strong foundation Darryll and the team have created. Having spent much of my career leading Arkansas manufacturing operations, I am especially glad to be doing this work close to home.”
More information on U.S. Vanadium, and vanadium technologies in general, can be seen on U.S. Vanadium’s website: https://www.usvanadium.com.
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About U.S. Vanadium LLC
US Vanadium (USV) is a privately owned, majority by TechMet USA, U.S.-based producer of the world’s highest-purity vanadium oxides, ultra-high-purity electrolyte for vanadium flow batteries, and vanadium industrial and specialty chemicals. USV is the only domestic producer of high-purity vanadium oxides (99.6% pure) that are critical to the U.S. defense, infrastructure, and energy sectors, as well as the only domestic producer of high-purity vanadium pentoxide flake. The company operates two facilities in Arkansas — in Benton and Hot Springs — and employs 116 people. For more information, please visit: www.usvanadium.com/.
Contact: Jim Sims, js@usvanadium.com, +1 (303) 503-6203
About TechMet USA Inc.
TechMet USA is a domestic U.S. producer, processor and recycler of critical minerals, majority-owned by TechMet Ltd. Through a diversified portfolio of producing and late-stage development projects, TechMet USA is focused on developing a diversified portfolio of U.S. assets across key minerals including lithium, vanadium, rare earths, cobalt, nickel and gallium, supporting domestic supply, national security and U.S. industrial competitiveness. For more information, please visit: www.techmetusa.com
Contact: Ashley Bruggeman, techmetusa@apcoworldwide.com, +1 (202) 778-1000
