Almonty Puts Its Money Where Its Mouth Is: $300M Buyback Backed by a $1.2 Billion War Chest

Almonty launches $300M buyback after $1.2B cash build, as Sangdong mine ramps up and Western demand for non-Chinese tungsten grows.

The tungsten producer Almonty Industries is sending shareholders a message that is hard to ignore: management believes the stock is cheap, and it now has the balance sheet to act on that conviction. A freshly approved buyback of up to $300 million — covering roughly 14.4 million shares, or about 5 percent of outstanding equity — will run from August 24, 2026 through August 24, 2029, and arrives on the heels of a corporate restructuring that has left the company sitting on a mountain of cash.

The market got the hint immediately. Shares climbed 6.3 percent on the day the repurchase plan was unveiled, with analysts pointing squarely at the buyback as the catalyst. CEO Lewis Black left little room for interpretation, stating that the board approved the program because the current share price fails to reflect the true worth of the company and its assets. He tied the decision directly to geopolitical currents, noting that Almonty controls one of the largest and highest-grade tungsten deposits outside China at a moment when Western governments and defense contractors are scrambling to secure non-Chinese supply chains for critical minerals.

A Balance Sheet Transformed

The buyback rests on a foundation that looked very different just a few months ago. On June 9, 2026, Almonty closed an oversubscribed bond offering — 2.25 percent convertible notes maturing in 2031 — that pulled in gross proceeds of $800 million. The impact on the company's liquidity position was dramatic: as of June 30, 2026, Almonty held $1.2 billion in cash, a staggering leap from the $268.4 million on hand at the end of December 2025.

That war chest gives management the flexibility to fund growth initiatives while simultaneously returning capital to shareholders. The second-quarter results underscore just how much has changed operationally. Revenue came in at C$43.0 million, up 498 percent year over year, while net income swung to C$181.8 million from a loss of C$58.2 million in the prior-year quarter. It should be noted that C$173.1 million of that profit stemmed from non-cash gains related to the revaluation of derivatives.

Sangdong Comes Online

The financial transformation coincides with a pivotal operational milestone. The Sangdong mine in South Korea moved into commercial processing of ore stockpiles in July, following the completion of the processing plant in March. Analyst Matthias Greiffenberger of GBC AG, who reaffirmed his buy rating with a price target of $30.00 valid through end-2027, described the transition from construction project to producing operation as a significant step toward reducing company risk.

That progress is not without its skeptics. Diamond Equity trimmed its fiscal 2026 earnings estimate to $0.39 per share from $0.55 in mid-August. Weiss Ratings upgraded the stock from "sell (d-)" to "hold (c-)" — an improvement, but still firmly in the lower tier of its scale. Automated scoring models acknowledge Almonty's growth potential while flagging profitability as a persistent weakness. The company's history of substantial losses and dilution remains a backdrop investors cannot ignore, and the challenge ahead is proving that Sangdong's ramp-up and the long-term tungsten supply agreement with Plansee can convert rapid revenue growth into sustainable earnings.

Slimming Down the Listing Structure

The buyback dovetails with a deliberate consolidation of Almonty's public market footprint. The company voluntarily delisted from the TSX at the close of trading on July 31, 2026, and will follow suit on the Australian ASX on September 1, 2026, with trading in the CHESS Depositary Interests suspended as of August 28. Management's rationale: the overwhelming majority of daily trading volume already flows through the Nasdaq, while activity on the Toronto and Sydney exchanges has dwindled.

Once the delistings are complete, Almonty will maintain its primary listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker "ALM" and a secondary listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under "ALI1". The company's cash position of C$1.23 billion — the figure reported as of June 30 in Canadian dollars — provides ample cushion for the transition.

The actual repurchase program commences on August 24. Investors will be watching closely to see how aggressively Almonty deploys capital against its own stock in the coming weeks, particularly as commercial production from Sangdong begins flowing into quarterly results. With fewer shares outstanding, a balance sheet flush with liquidity, and a streamlined exchange presence, the tungsten producer is betting that a tighter capital structure and a focused listing will command the attention — and valuation — it believes the business deserves.