No high-tech without tungsten – This bottleneck brings returns: Almonty, Siemens Healthineers, Intel

Siemens Healthineers: Tungsten makes X-rays precise

Tungsten is a special metal that is needed in many industries: sometimes a lot of it, but often very little. What sets tungsten apart is that it is often irreplaceable. If it is completely absent, various value chains will come to a standstill. Outside the defense industry, where tungsten is used in ammunition, armor, and jet engines, tungsten plays an important role primarily in medical technology and the chip industry. Without tungsten from China, which dominates more than 80% of the market, production losses are looming in both these critical areas. In medical technology, tungsten is primarily used in products for imaging processes. These play an important role in both preventive care and therapy. Siemens Healthineers is the global market leader in this field – if the supply of tungsten were to collapse, this would have an indirect impact on production in the medical technology industry: The high density of the metal, its radiation protection properties and its ability to precisely manipulate rays are indispensable for the manufacture of medical imaging equipment. This is particularly true given that imaging procedures and radiation therapies are becoming increasingly precise.

Intel: Nothing works without high-purity tungsten

Tungsten also plays a crucial role in chips, such as those developed and manufactured by Intel. Tungsten fluoride is used in the so-called gas phase deposition process in chip manufacturing, and tungsten titanium serves as a diffusion barrier in the metallization of microchips to ensure that the semiconductors ultimately function properly. Both processes require high-purity tungsten. This dependence on high-purity materials makes the semiconductor industry particularly vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. In addition to tungsten, certain gases, such as helium, also play crucial roles. Added to this is the regional concentration in the chip industry: 92% of state-of-the-art chips now come from Taiwan. Intel, likely the world's best-known chip company, also manufactures there.

Almonty: From visionary to last resort

Only about 1,440 km from Taiwan's capital Taipei lies South Korea's capital Seoul. Not far from there is the Sangdong Mine, one of the world's largest tungsten deposits, which is scheduled to go into production this year. Sangdong stands for high-purity tungsten and good production conditions. However, the mine lay idle for years – China flooded the tungsten market with subsidized products and ensured that Western mines were gradually shut down. This led to today's market dominance in rare earths, as well as in tungsten. Almonty Industries recognized early on that this dependence would lead the West into a dead end and built up a comprehensive portfolio of promising tungsten projects in the 2010s. Among others, this includes the Panasqueira mine in Portugal, which has been in production for more than a hundred years and still extracts high-purity tungsten today.

The know-how that miners have passed down over five decades is valuable to Almonty, because tungsten is an extremely complicated element: at room temperature, pure tungsten tends to break, which requires special cutting tools. Tungsten can only be welded using lasers or electron beams, which makes processing complex and cost-intensive. These processing difficulties are not just technical characteristics, but also significant hurdles within the tungsten value chain – only a limited number of companies have the necessary expertise. As one of the few Western producers and owner of what it claims to be the world's most modern tungsten laboratory, Almonty is perfectly positioned to play its trump cards in the coming years.

Sphene Capital sees around 40% potential in Almonty shares

One of these trump cards is the processing plant for the Sangdong mine, which is scheduled for 2027 and for which Almonty raised USD 90 million on the US capital market a few days ago. The Company's wide-ranging experience will be incorporated here to ensure that Almonty becomes a cash cow. The analysis firm Sphene Capital also believes that the chances of this happening are good, predicting revenues of CAD 300 million and EBITDA of CAD 153.7 million for Almonty by 2027. According to Sphene Capital, Almonty's key figures justify a share price of CAD 8.40 – based on current listings, this represents a premium of approximately 40%. If the Company continues to successfully leverage its unique expertise in tungsten and possibly further develop its two projects in Spain, Almonty could unlock further potential.As Almonty is one of the few alternatives to tungsten from China, the chances of this happening are favorable. Almonty is uniquely positioned to become the global market leader in its niche.**