Almonty's Sangdong Mill Wins Commercial Clearance as Analysts Spar Over Fair Value

Almonty's Sangdong plant wins commercial clearance as shares sit 42% below their 52-week high, with Stifel and Goldman split on valuation.

Regulatory sign-off has finally landed at Almonty's flagship South Korean operation. Inspection certificates dated 17 September authorize commercial operation of the Sangdong processing plant and its crushing circuits, clearing the way for the company to sell tungsten concentrate on official terms. The paperwork follows hot on the heels of the first concentrate production reported roughly a week earlier, and the mill has since settled into a disciplined shift pattern — 13 hours a day, seven days a week.

Work on the Phase II expansion is running in parallel, with completion targeted for 2027. Management is aiming for annual capacity of up to 1.2 million tonnes once that build-out wraps, a scale that would hand Almonty a strategic foothold in a critical industrial metal outside of China.

Supply Chain Ambitions Stretch Across Three Continents

Beyond Korea, the company used a shareholder letter and corporate update to lay out a tungsten supply strategy spanning South Korea, Europe and Rwanda. The three-legged structure is intended to shore up Almonty's standing in the international tungsten market as output scales.

Administrative housekeeping has also been on the agenda. Effective 29 September, Almonty appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as its new auditor, replacing Zeifmans LLP. Auditor switches tend to raise eyebrows in public markets, but the company stressed the change stemmed from no disagreement over accounting principles or audit procedures. Separately, Pure Tungsten Inc. issued a corrective statement as part of a legal settlement, clarifying that Tiger Kim never held an executive, board or director position at Almonty; his work as an independent contractor ended on 31 December 2015. Such disclosures clear away legacy noise, though they briefly pull attention away from the operating story.

A Stock That Cannot Find Its Footing

Despite the operational milestones, the equity has struggled to break out of its recent soft patch. The shares slipped 2.4% on Tuesday to EUR 11.76, a move with no single company-specific trigger during the session. Over a 30-day horizon the picture is starker: a pre-market price of EUR 12.03 implies a decline of 21%, and the stock now sits 42% below its 52-week high. That retreat marks a tangible re-rating by market participants — the phase of generous benefit-of-the-doubt has run its course, and investors must now sort out which signals genuinely carry weight.

Producing saleable concentrate proves the equipment works. The trickier passage, as ever in mining, is the journey from the first filled export bags to sustained, profitable large-scale output — traditionally the most delicate stretch of any ramp-up. It is precisely at that intersection that some investors' confidence has started to wobble. Even so, the shares remain up 48% year to date, holding well above where they started the year after the operational progress reported so far.

Two Banks, Two Very Different Price Tags

Just how divided the street has become was on display when coverage from two research houses kicked off about two weeks ago. Stifel stamped the stock with a Buy and a USD 25 target, while Goldman Sachs took a decidedly cooler line — Neutral, with a USD 13 target. Goldman's caution rests on the view that the market has already priced in both the favorable tungsten backdrop and the demanding timeline. Stifel, by contrast, points to future production capacity. The wide gap between two established houses captures the valuation dilemma neatly: at current levels, how much optimism can the shares still carry?

The fundamental value, as the bulls see it, is being built in the processing plants of South Korea. The mill is running seven days a week on multiple shifts, with preparations underway to move toward round-the-clock operation. Should the ramp-up succeed, Almonty occupies a rare position in a critical industrial metal. Near term, though, volatility looks likely to persist, since the market will judge every delay in the ramp-up harshly. Patience — and a focus on actual production progress — remains the order of the day.