Strategic & Critical Minerals

Tungsten

The metal with the highest melting point of all elements, essential for cutting tools and armaments.

WStrategic score 83US Critical MineralEU Critical Raw Material

Price

$345 / USD/mtu APT

Price change

5.6%

Producing assets

Technologies

Context

Why it matters

Tungsten carbide is the backbone of precision manufacturing; there is no practical substitute in hard metals.

Profile

Applications: Cutting tools and carbide, Armour and munitions, Aerospace alloys, Electrodes and filaments, Semiconductor interconnects
Supply risk: High. Concentrated supply and defence-driven demand.
Geopolitics: China dominates mining and APT conversion; western supply is limited to a few operations.
Substitutes: Very limited in hard metal applications.
Recycling: High. Hard metal scrap recycling supplies a meaningful share of demand.
Sustainability: Ore processing is chemically intensive; tailings require careful handling.
Forecast: Defence and precision manufacturing demand supports a firm price floor.
Key countries: 3 tracked producer and processing roles

Methodology

Version v0.1

Demand Outlook: 83 (weight 1.2) — Projected demand growth relative to the broader mineral economy over the next decade.
Supply Risk: 79 (weight 1.2) — Likelihood of supply falling short of demand, accounting for project pipeline and lead times.
Geographic Concentration: 90 (weight 1) — How concentrated mining and processing are across countries and companies.
Geopolitical Risk: 86 (weight 1) — Exposure to export controls, sanctions and jurisdictional instability.
Technology Importance: 94 (weight 1.1) — How central the mineral is to strategically important technologies.
Strategic Importance: 88 (weight 1) — Recognition in national critical mineral lists and defence supply chains.
Substitutability: 78 (weight 0.8) — How readily the mineral can be replaced without material performance loss. Higher is harder to substitute.
Recycling Potential: 75 (weight 0.7) — Ability of secondary supply to relieve primary demand. Higher means less relief available.

Assets

A cluster of tungsten operations that anchors global tungsten supply.

Research

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Materials

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