Western tungsten (Almonty) — non-Chinese supply of a chip-interconnect and tooling metal China put under export control
AI exposure 4% — derived from reported segment revenue, not asserted.
Energy Supply & Critical Minerals → Critical Minerals & Base Metals · figures rebased to FY2025, reported 2026-03-19
Almonty mines and processes tungsten, which is what this sub-tier holds — "the miners and producers of the physical materials AI infrastructure is built from" — and it is the textbook case of the bottleneck the sub-tier names, where "refining is concentrated in China, making non-Chinese supply strategically scarce." China is the largest producer of tungsten concentrate and put it under export control in February 2025; APT prices have gone from US$330 per MTU to roughly US$2,250 since. Tungsten reaches AI through chip interconnect vias and the carbide tooling that machines the rest of the build-out, and Almonty names semiconductors among its target markets. Two things are stated rather than smoothed over: revenue is US$32.5M from one producing mine with Sangdong still ramping, and its own filing leads with defence rather than chips — hence tier C, a smallcap flag and a limitedAI flag. Added 2026-10.
Almonty Industries (US$32.514M gross revenue in FY2025, against US$28.836M in FY2024) is a tungsten miner with one producing asset — Panasqueira in Portugal — and the Sangdong mine in South Korea in commissioning and ramp-up. It states its objective as building "a secure, Western-focused tungsten and molybdenum supply chain capable of displacing reliance on China" for "defense, semiconductor, and battery markets". The market context is the point: China is the world's largest producer of tungsten concentrate and imposed export controls on it in February 2025, and APT mid-prices went from…
Moat. Geology and jurisdiction rather than technology: large, high-grade tungsten deposits outside China barely exist, and Almonty holds two of the credible Western ones. Sangdong is among the largest tungsten deposits outside China and sits in a treaty-ally jurisdiction, which is the entire basis of the offtake interest.
Bottleneck / pricing power. China's share of tungsten concentrate supply and its February 2025 export controls. New mines take a decade-plus, so Western supply cannot respond to a price signal quickly — the scarcity is structural, not cyclical.
Role in the AI stack. Non-Chinese tungsten supply for chip interconnect and the tooling that makes everything else.
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