Critical Minerals And The Power Of Transparency: Lessons From Tungsten
By Robert Ginsburg,
Contributor.
Robert Ginsburg is a reporter who writes about international business.
Aug 25, 2025, 10:41am EDTAug 25, 2025, 10:42am EDT
TOPSHOT - Aerial view of brine ponds and processing areas of the lithium mine of the Chilean company SQM (Sociedad Quimica Minera) in the Atacama Desert, Calama, Chile, on September 12, 2022. - The turquoise glimmer of open-air pools meets the dazzling white of a seemingly endless salt desert where hope and disillusionment collide in Latin America's "lithium triangle." A key component of batteries used in electric cars, demand has exploded for the "white gold" found in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile in quantities larger than anywhere else in the world. (Photo by Martin BERNETTI / AFP) (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images)... More
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Tungsten is no longer just a commodity. Like lithium, cobalt, and rare earths, it has crystallized into a strategic variable—an element whose movement shifts not only prices and supply chains but also the balance of power among nations. Defense planners, climate policymakers, and industrial strategists now treat access to these minerals as a core part of their calculations.
Global tungsten supply is under strain. Stockpiles in the U.S. and Europe have been quietly shrinking, demand is climbing in defense and clean-tech sectors, and China still processes close to 90% of the world’s supply. In the past two years, prices have risen by about 30%, pushing some Western reserves to their lowest levels in over a decade. The shortage isn’t confined to one industry or region—it cuts across sectors. Missile guidance systems, wind turbine shafts, and precision cutting tools all depend on tungsten, and without a steady supply, some production schedules will continue to change while strategic capabilities will be compromised.
South Korea and the U.S.
In May 2024, my Forbes column spotlighted a South Korean tungsten project as a strategic benchmark for a newly integrated strategy—linking critical minerals policy, geopolitics, and supply chain management—to deliver the outcomes policymakers have long sought. That benchmark has now moved from theory to reality. The Sangdong mine, operated by Almonty Industries, is attracting sustained attention in Washington, Brussels, and Seoul because it offers a tangible model of success: securing a critical mineral from a trusted ally, diversifying supply chain risk away from a dominant supplier, and creating strategic value for defense, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing all at once.
The Sangdong story is more than a mining success—it is a microcosm of a larger shift. In this new era, critical minerals policy, geopolitics, and supply chain management have crystallized into a single strategic variable. A tungsten supply deal today is not just an industrial contract, a diplomatic decision, or a logistics strategy; it is all three at once, and it is treated as such by governments and corporations. While oil once played a similar role, its convergence was slower, narrower, and concentrated in the energy sector. Today, the convergence around critical minerals has emerged in just a few years, spanning multiple distinct industries. Defense, semiconductor, and clean energy sectors are all implicated, and the speed, breadth, and volatility are what make the current moment fundamentally different.
While tungsten has historically been measured by its industrial performance and price, market logic has now been overtaken by security logic. In Washington, Sangdong’s expected output is viewed less as a commodity and more as a safeguard against strategic vulnerability. For U.S. defense officials, securing tungsten from a trusted ally is not just about meeting procurement targets—it is about solidifying the entire defense industrial base against supply shocks that could disrupt both readiness and deterrence. The same convergence is driving a transformation in industrial policy, and similar logic now applies across lithium, cobalt, and rare earths.
Geopolitical Factors
The U.S., EU, Japan, South Korea, and Australia no longer treat mineral sourcing as an indirect market outcome; they are deliberately considering it as part of their geopolitical strategies. Subsidies, tax incentives, strategic reserves, and long-term offtake agreements have moved from the economic toolbox into the realm of foreign policy. For example, the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act is designed not just to boost domestic supply but to reorganize the continent’s industrial base around non-Chinese sources. For Almonty, this means a contract with a European turbine manufacturer is more than a sales agreement—it’s an incremental, but deliberate act in a broader campaign to reduce China’s leverage over critical mineral supply chains. The same dynamic is unfolding in South American lithium fields and African rare earth projects, where resource contracts are inseparable from diplomatic strategy.
Weaponization of Supply Chains
While disruptions in mineral markets might have been dismissed as temporary price shocks in the past, today they are increasingly viewed as a lever of manipulation. Beijing’s rare earth export controls and Moscow’s manipulation of natural gas flows have shown how supply chains can be weaponized to achieve geopolitical ends. It is not hard to imagine a scenario where access to tungsten, lithium, or cobalt becomes a bargaining chip in disputes over trade, security, or territorial claims. This shift forces governments and industries to think about critical mineral supply chains with the same seriousness they reserve for military planning—anticipating blockages, diversifying routes, and building redundancy before a crisis hits.
Climate and Energy Transition
At the same time, the clean energy transition is turning tungsten—and other hard-to-replace minerals—into green industrial necessities. The EU’s wind power expansion, next-generation electric drivetrains, and energy efficiency retrofits all require components made stronger and more durable by tungsten alloys, lithium batteries, and rare earth magnets. This demand is rising in parallel with military needs, creating a rare alignment between defense readiness and climate policy. In Brussels, securing non-Chinese supply is as much about meeting net-zero targets as it is about industrial competitiveness. The result is that environmental policy, industrial policy, and national security policy are no longer running in separate lanes—they are merging into one strategic calculus.Read More
Company Agility in Divergent Markets
For companies operating at the center of this convergence, agility is no longer optional. The strategic language in Washington is defense readiness; in Brussels, it is clean energy independence. Yet the underlying motive—reducing reliance on China—remains the same. A single shipment of concentrate might serve armor-piercing munitions in one contract and wind turbine shafts in another. Navigating these divergent end uses means adapting not just to market demand but to the geopolitical and policy priorities behind it. For Almonty Industries, that means structuring deals, logistics, and enduring partnerships in ways that speak to each market’s strategic agenda while safeguarding the company’s position in an increasingly politicized supply chain.
Conclusion – The Strategic Variable
Tungsten shows how fast critical minerals have moved from commodities to strategic variables. The same is true for lithium, cobalt, and rare earths. Yet no single, trusted source tracks how these minerals shape prices, supply chains, and geopolitical leverage all at once.
An index could fill that gap—spotting where vulnerabilities build, how policy changes shift supply, and when minerals turn into political weapons. With that transparency, governments can plan, companies can pivot, and investors can move with confidence. In an era of weaponized supply chains and soaring clean-energy demand, transparency isn’t just useful—it’s strategic power.
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