Bolivia may turn out to be the Saudi Arabia of lithium, but neighboring Paraguay could corner the market on titanium. A new mineral discovery near the country’s Brazilian border may constitute the world’s largest reserves of the metal used in a range of products, from ships to space shuttles to watches.

Paraguay’s future mineral prowess hinges on the validity of an announcement by American prospector, David Lowell. The 82-year-old American geologist already has 14 major mineral finds under his belt, including the 1981 discovery of Escondida in Chile’s Atacama desert—the planet’s largest copper reserve. He has now laid claim to mineral rights in an area of Paraguay’s Alto Paraná that is roughly the size of London and told Bloomberg last week: “Our deposit could control the world titanium market, a big enough piece of production that whoever operates it would dictate what the price is going to be.”