Almonty Flips the Switch on Sangdong as Tungsten Prices Skyrocket

Almonty's Sangdong tungsten project in South Korea starts processing ore with $68M stockpile. Revenue jumps 221% amid 534% tungsten price surge. Stock up 258% over year but recent pullback.

The wait is over for Almonty Industries. On July 1, the processing plant at its massive Sangdong tungsten project in South Korea's Gangwon Province began feeding on a stockpile of ore that the company had been quietly amassing for weeks. The transition from developer to active producer is now complete, and the implications ripple far beyond the mine gate.

Some 139,700 tonnes of run-of-mine ore — with an average tungsten trioxide grade of 0.25% — were already heaped on the surface before the plant started. Almonty added nearly 20,000 tonnes in the June quarter alone, and that material carries a higher grade. The estimated gross value of the accumulated ore: US$68 million. This is not a mine starting from scratch; it is a mine opening with a built-in revenue backlog.

The timing could hardly be better from a pricing perspective. Ammonium paratungstate, a key tungsten intermediate, has surged 534% to US$2,250 per tonne. CEO Lewis Black stressed that Sangdong is now a cash-generating operation, and at full capacity it is expected to serve roughly 40% of the world's tungsten demand outside China. With a projected mine life exceeding 45 years, the asset is being positioned as a pillar of Western supply-chain security.

That security dimension is not lost on Washington. The US Department of Defense and other federal agencies are actively working to reduce dependence on Chinese imports, and Almonty's parallel Browns Lake project in the United States — estimated to hold 7.53 million tonnes of resources — fits neatly into that agenda. The company is now one of the few Western players capable of delivering tungsten at scale.

Financially, Almonty has already demonstrated its earning power. Revenue jumped 221% to US$25.4 million earlier this year, driven both by higher spot prices and the steady output from its Portuguese Panasqueira mine. Operating cash flow swung sharply into positive territory, strengthening the balance sheet ahead of Sangdong's ramp-up.

Investors have been rewarding the story handsomely. The stock has gained 258% over the past twelve months and 85% year-to-date, though the recent weeks have seen a pullback. Shares closed at C$22.33 on the most recent session, down roughly 20% in the past 30 days. The relative strength index sits at 39.4, suggesting the selling pressure is starting to fade. At C$23.27, the shares still trade well above their long-term average, and the longer-term uptrend remains intact.

Now the focus shifts to operational execution. The processing plant must prove its reliability in continuous operation. If it does, Sangdong will close a critical gap in the West's tungsten supply chain — and Almonty will have the earnings to show for it.