Free Reads Terra Industries’ First Commercial Deals Stoke Race For Nigerian Lithium Amid Concerns By Staff Reporter  |  September 9, 2026 Terra Industries’ commercial division is barely a week old and already paying for itself. The Nigerian defence-tech startup disclosed today that it has closed USD 2 million in contracts to protect lithium mining operations in Nigeria. The company will deploy 20 sentry towers and four Iroko drones across two mining sites, providing surveillance, real-time threat detection, and response through ArtemisOS, its autonomous command-and-control layer. More sites are expected to come online as the operators expand.  The contracts are a quick validation of Terra’s new commercial push, led by Todd Stiefler, the Palantir alumnus appointed director of commercial in August. The division was built to sell autonomous security systems to private infrastructure operators across Africa, the Gulf, South America and South Asia. Until now, Terra’s work has been split between government clients…