Strategic metals supplier Almonty Industries has completed Phase 1 commissioning at its Sangdong tungsten mine in South Korea, bringing the historic operation back into production amid record prices for the metal, which is widely used in defence applications and semiconductors.
The restart marks a significant milestone for the project, which was once among the world’s largest tungsten producers before being placed on care and maintenance in the early 1990s following a downturn in commodity prices.
Phase 1 operations are now under way, with the processing plant designed to treat about 640 000 t/y of ore, producing about 2 300 t/y of tungsten concentrate.
A planned Phase 2 expansion, targeted for 2027, is expected to increase throughput to 1.2-million tonnes a year, doubling output to about 4 600 t/y. At full capacity, Sangdong is expected to supply about 40% of global tungsten demand outside China.
President and CEO Lewis Black said the commissioning represented the culmination of more than a decade of redevelopment.
“This is a significant milestone in the effort by the United States and its allies to diversify supply chains for critical minerals away from China,” he said, noting that China currently accounts for the majority of global tungsten supply.
Almonty has invested more than $100-million since acquiring the project in 2015, redeveloping it into a modern underground operation with a new processing plant and about 4 km of underground development.
The mine has an expected life exceeding 45 years, with an average grade of about 0.51% tungsten trioxide, significantly above the global average.
The company is now focused on ramping up production and advancing downstream plans, including a tungsten oxide facility and development of the adjacent molybdenum deposit, as part of its broader strategy to establish an integrated tungsten supply chain outside China.