: I think, at the end of the day, mithril can't be titanium simply because there isn't enough of it scattered around ME.

This discussion is becoming very conjectural anyway, and has moved well away from any evidence. As Tolkien himself wasn't a scientist, he probably didn't have a very clear picture in mind as to how Mithril was manufactured, or as to it's chemical properties. Tolkien thought of a lot, and worked out an mazing mass of details, down to different calendars and how they were modified over the years, but geology was obviously one fact he didn't consider very carefully. Take a look at the map of M.E. and try to work out the tectonic history of such a continent. It's pretty jumbled. It's also strange that the Anduin flows parallel to the Misty Mountains and not away from them to the East (especially seeing Mirkwood was more or less on level ground rather than on a range of hills). Of course, I'm sure theories can be invented to explain all that, but they'll probably have nothing in mind with anything Tolkien ever imagined.