Last week, we explored some of the obscure metals quietly supporting modern industry, advanced technology, and national defense.
Those aren’t commodities that dominate financial television. Most investors never check their prices, and even fewer could identify the companies producing them.
Yet without these materials, many of the machines, weapons and infrastructure systems we take for granted would become more expensive, less effective, or just plain impossible to manufacture.
And few metals illustrate that disconnect better than tungsten…
This metal rarely attracts the attention given to copper, lithium, gold, or uranium. But beneath the surface, it’s become one of the most important materials in the world.
It helps cut the steel used to construct buildings.
It drills the wells that supply oil and natural gas.
It strengthens armor and improves the penetrating power of ammunition.
It survives inside jet engines, rockets, electronics and industrial machinery operating under punishing conditions.
The modern economy doesn’t consume enormous quantities of tungsten compared with iron, aluminum or copper.
But it also can’t afford to run out of it. And that’s becoming a serious problem for the West.
The Metal That Refuses to Melt
Tungsten’s importance begins with its unusual physical properties…
It has the highest melting point of any pure metal, at approximately 3,422 degrees Celsius. (For reference, the surface of the sun is about 5,500 degrees Celsius.)
It’s extremely dense, exceptionally hard when combined into tungsten carbide, and remarkably resistant to heat, abrasion, and deformation.
And those characteristics make it nearly impossible to replace.
Roughly 60% of the tungsten consumed in the United States goes into cemented-carbide components used for cutting, drilling and wear-resistant applications.
These tools are essential to construction, metalworking, mining and oil and gas drilling.
The remainder goes into specialty steels, high-performance alloys, electronics, welding equipment, heating components and chemical applications.
Tungsten carbide can cut and shape metals that would quickly destroy conventional steel tools.
That makes it indispensable to machine shops, aerospace manufacturers, automotive factories and practically every industry that needs to turn raw material into precision components.
Its density also gives it important military uses…
Tungsten alloys are used in armor-piercing ammunition, kinetic-energy penetrators, fragmentation systems, radiation shielding, counterweights, missile components, and aerospace systems.
Unlike lead, tungsten can provide substantial weight and density while maintaining excellent strength and heat resistance.
That combination matters in an age of hypersonic weapons, advanced aircraft, precision-guided munitions and increasingly powerful engines.
These systems encounter enormous heat, friction, and physical stress. Ordinary materials can’t survive those conditions. But tungsten can.
One Supply Chain, One Enormous Weakness
Unfortunately, the nations most dependent on tungsten are not necessarily the ones producing it…
The United States hasn’t mined tungsten on a commercial scale since 2015 and remains more than 50% reliant on imports to meet domestic consumption.
And during the 2021–2024 period, China supplied approximately 26% of America’s imported tungsten ores, concentrates, and processed forms.
That has become a major vulnerability…
You see, some tungsten reaches Western manufacturers only after passing through foreign processors, traders and intermediate-product suppliers.
So, a component may arrive from Europe or another Asian country while still depending on Chinese feedstock and Chinese processing further upstream.
And that’s where China has a chokehold on the whole market….
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the world mined approximately 85,000 metric tons of tungsten in 2025.
China produced roughly 67,000 tons, or nearly four-fifths of the total.
The next-largest producers included Vietnam, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Russia, Bolivia and Rwanda. Those aren’t really close partners with the U.S.
So, even after removing China from the equation, a meaningful portion of remaining production comes from countries that are politically unstable, strategically aligned with Beijing or Moscow, sanctioned by Western governments, or simply incapable of supporting the scale and transparency modern supply chains require.
North Korea and Russia together produced an estimated 4,000 tons in 2025.
Vietnam produced another 3,000 tons and has deep commercial ties to the Chinese industrial economy.
Kazakhstan is emerging as an important producer, but it remains geographically and economically connected to both Russia and China.
So, calling that a diversified supply chain is way too generous…
It is more accurately described as a China-dominated system surrounded by suppliers operating within, or adjacent to, China’s geopolitical sphere.
Beijing Has Already Demonstrated the Risk
And the thing is that this vulnerability is no longer theoretical…
In February 2025, China imposed new export controls on selected tungsten products.
And prices skyrocketed immediately…
According to the USGS, Rotterdam prices for 65% tungsten concentrate increased from $266 per metric-ton unit to $551.
Ammonium paratungstate, a key intermediate material commonly called APT, rose from $331 to $675 per metric-ton unit.
That wasn’t another commodity rally…
It was the market beginning to price in the possibility that tungsten could be withheld, restricted, or redirected for political purposes.
You see, China has spent decades building dominant positions in mining, refining and advanced-material processing.
And now, it can use those positions as leverage whenever Western governments restrict Chinese access to semiconductors, artificial intelligence hardware, military technology, or capital markets.
The West may control many of the world’s most advanced technologies. But China controls nearly all of the materials needed to manufacture them.
And tungsten is one of the clearest examples.
The Producers Rebuilding Non-Chinese Supply
The immediate answer lies with existing producers outside China…
Almonty Industries has become one of the most prominent Western-facing tungsten companies.
It operates the Panasqueira mine in Portugal and has been developing the much larger Sangdong project in South Korea.
Sangdong was historically one of the world’s major tungsten mines before closing in the 1990s when inexpensive Chinese supply pushed many competitors out of business.
But Almonty began processing operations there in July 2026, marking its transition toward production of saleable concentrate.
That restart is strategically significant…
South Korea is a close U.S. ally, and Sangdong offers the potential for a large, long-lived source of tungsten outside Chinese control.
Australia’s EQ Resources is another increasingly important producer…
Its Mt Carbine operation in Queensland is helping restore Australia’s role in tungsten mining, while the company has also expanded into Spain.
Australia produced approximately 1,000 metric tons of tungsten in 2025, while Spain produced roughly 800 tons.
Now, those numbers are a drop in the bucket compared with China’s 67,000 tons…
But they represent production from stable jurisdictions capable of attracting Western capital and serving allied customers.
None of these countries can replace China alone. But together they can form the foundation of a more resilient allied supply network.
The Mines That Don’t Exist… Yet
But current producers can only do so much.
And if the United States, Canada, Europe, and their allies genuinely want supply-chain independence, they also need new mines.
And that makes tungsten explorers and mine developers just as important as today’s operating producers. So, let’s talk about a handful of them…
In Canada, Fireweed Metals owns the Mactung project in the Yukon.
The company reports indicated resources of 41.5 million tons grading 0.73% tungsten trioxide, along with 12.2 million inferred tons grading 0.59%.
Fireweed describes Mactung as the world’s largest high-grade tungsten resource and began an updated feasibility study in 2026.
Once put into production, a deposit of that scale could eventually become an anchor asset for North American tungsten production.
Then, in Nevada, Guardian Metal Resources is advancing the Pilot Mountain and Tempiute projects…
Pilot Mountain already contains an indicated and inferred mineral resource and is believed by the company to be among the largest undeveloped tungsten deposits in the United States.
Guardian is also advancing Tempiute, a historic tungsten district with existing infrastructure and patented mining claims that may simplify parts of the development process.
The company has received U.S. government support under Defense Production Act programs, underscoring the project’s national-security relevance.
Another domestic play, American Tungsten is attempting to revive the past-producing IMA mine in Idaho.
The project supplied tungsten during previous periods of strategic demand, and recent drilling has returned tungsten-silver mineralization across the company’s initial holes.
Metallurgical work is now aimed at determining how efficiently that material can be recovered and processed.
And across the Atlantic, Tungsten West is working to restart the Hemerdon mine in Devon, England…
Hemerdon is fully permitted and hosts one of the largest tungsten resources outside China, although it’s also demonstrated how technically and financially challenging tungsten operations can be.
Strategic Minerals is also advancing the Redmoor tungsten-tin-copper project in Cornwall.
Redmoor remains earlier-stage, but its location inside the United Kingdom gives it obvious strategic appeal should Europe become more aggressive about developing domestic critical-mineral resources.
These projects are all al little different…
Some have large defined resources. Others have historic mine workings and infrastructure.
Some are approaching feasibility studies or restart decisions, while others still require years of drilling, permitting, financing and engineering.
And exploration success doesn’t guarantee production. But I guarantee production can’t start without exploration.
Mining Is Only Half the Battle
But just finding tungsten in the ground won’t solve the entire problem. Neither will digging it up…
Ore must be concentrated, converted into APT or other intermediates, refined into powders and manufactured into tungsten carbide, alloys, and finished components.
But, thankfully, the United States still has a whopping seven companies capable of converting tungsten concentrates, APT, oxides or scrap into tungsten metal powder, carbide powder, or chemicals.
Yet, again, without reliable feedstock, that processing infrastructure can’t operate at its full potential.
And that’s why the solution has to cover the entire chain…
The West needs mines, concentration facilities, chemical conversion, refining, recycling, and long-term purchasing agreements that give developers enough certainty to finance construction.
It may also require government stockpiles, price floors, grants, low-cost loans, and defense procurement commitments.
That will offend free-market purists. But China didn’t build its dominance through an entirely free market. ..
It used state policy, inexpensive capital, controlled pricing and a willingness to operate mines and processing facilities at economics Western competitors couldn’t match.
And expecting private companies to reverse that system without policy support is unrealistic.
The Next Critical-Mineral Race
Tungsten will never be consumed in the same quantities as copper, steel or aluminum. But it doesn’t need to be…
Its importance comes from the fact that a relatively small amount can determine whether a vastly more valuable machine, weapon, factory, or energy project can function at all.
That makes tungsten a classic bottleneck material. And bottlenecks have tremendous strategic value.
For decades, the West treated cheap Chinese tungsten as an advantage…
Manufacturers received affordable material, consumers benefited from lower prices, and domestic mines were allowed to close.
Now that bargain is being exposed for what it really was…
The West didn’t eliminate the cost of producing tungsten. It outsourced the cost, surrendered the infrastructure, and transferred the leverage to its principal adversary.
Reversing that mistake will take years.
Existing producers such as Almonty and EQ Resources can provide some immediate relief. Developers such as Tungsten West may restore dormant capacity.
Explorers including Fireweed Metals, Guardian Metal Resources, American Tungsten, and Strategic Minerals are working to identify and expand the resources required for the next generation of supply.
Not all of them will succeed. But some must.
Because the metal that helps cut, drill, armor, and strengthen the modern world is far too important to remain almost entirely under the control of the nations the West may one day need it to defend against.