Almonty Prepares for Pivotal June as Tungsten Supply Crisis Reshapes Global Order

Almonty appoints Jorge Beristain as CFO as Sangdong mine ramps up, tungsten prices triple, and US defence rules target China supply. Q1 revenue jumps 221%.

The Canadian tungsten producer is entering a defining month. Jorge Beristain, a CFA with more than 25 years of capital markets experience, steps into the chief financial officer role on June 1, just days before the company holds its annual general meeting on June 9. The timing is far from coincidental. Almonty is simultaneously ramping up its Sangdong mine in South Korea, advancing a US project in Montana, and capitalising on a tungsten market that has seen prices triple since December.

Beristain arrives from Ryerson Holding, a metals service centre with $5bn in revenue, where he served as vice president of finance. He replaces Brian Fox, with development chief Guillaume de Lamaziere having handled the finance function on an interim basis. Shareholders of record as of April 24 will vote on the 2025 annual accounts, the re?election of Zeifmans LLP as auditor, and a board composition of seven members. The meeting offers management a platform to explain how it intends to finance the parallel development of Sangdong and Montana.

The operational momentum is real. Almonty reported first?quarter revenue of $25.4m, a 221% jump year over year. Adjusted EBITDA swung to $6.1m from a $2.4m loss in the prior?year period. Operating cash flow flipped to positive $9.7m from negative $4.4m. The company holds $259.9m in cash and $169.5m in net working capital. The driver is ammonium paratungstate, the industry benchmark tungsten intermediate, which surged past $3,000 per tonne in May — a gain of more than 50% in a single month.

Sangdong, closed for more than three decades, restarted production on March 17. Phase 1 is now processing roughly 640,000 tonnes of ore annually, yielding about 2,300 tonnes of tungsten concentrate. Phase 2, expected in 2027, will double capacity to 1.2 million tonnes of ore and 4,600 tonnes of concentrate. The mine has an estimated 100?year lifespan. When fully ramped, Sangdong could supply roughly 40% of the world’s tungsten demand outside China — a scale that elevates the project far beyond a single asset.

China still controls more than 80% of global tungsten output. The US has had no operating tungsten mine since 2015. That vulnerability is now driving policy. From January 2027, the US defence procurement rule DFARS 252.225-7052 will bar contractors from sourcing certain tungsten powders and alloys from China or Russia. Tungsten is irreplaceable in fighter jets, bunker busters, armour?piercing ammunition and missile systems. It also forms the electrical connection inside semiconductor chips, adding a second demand layer from the AI data?centre boom.

Almonty’s US hedge is the Gentung Browns Lake Tungsten Project in Beaverhead County, Montana, where the company acquired full ownership last year. Production readiness is targeted for the second half of 2026, with an initial capacity of roughly 140,000 MTUs per year. Almonty has already moved its head office from Toronto to Dillon, Montana. Longer term, the company envisions a fully integrated Korean supply chain dubbed the “Korean Trinity”: the Sangdong Phase 2 expansion, a tungsten oxide plant, and the adjacent Sangdong molybdenum deposit.

The market has priced in the story aggressively. Almonty’s shares closed at C$28.25 on Thursday, up 134.83% year to date and 616.10% over 12 months. That puts the stock 11.91% below its recent peak, with a relative strength index of 85.1 — a signal that the short?term run may be overheated. The next catalyst comes fast. Jorge Beristain takes the finance reins, and the AGM will test how clearly Almonty can articulate its governance and funding strategy for two mines in parallel. After such a surge, operational momentum alone will not sustain the stock.