: : P.s i think it is Ti...

: The only reason that I disagree with mithril being titanium is that titanium is very plentiful, though difficult to refine. If the dwarves knew the process (and there is nothing that says they didn't) then mithril wouldn't have been found only in Khazad Dum and Numenor. The dwarves of the Iron Hills and Erebor would have also had access to mithril through the refining process and mithril would have flowed from those regions as well as any other dwarf warrens.

: -RR

That is, unless they didn't have that technology, and there really was a vein of pure titanium in Moria. Maybe an asteroid made of pure titanium hit the earth there many eons ago, buried itself deep beneath Caradrhas, and remained there until the dwarves discovered it. That would explain why it was just about the only place where the metal occurred.