Strategic Metals Invest provides private investors with direct access to high-value, industrial-grade strategic metals—materials essential to technology and economic growth. As a trusted sales and marketing partner of TRADIUM Gmbh, a leading industry supplier with over 25 years’ experience, the company offers a secure route into an asset class typically reserved for major manufacturers and high-tech industries.
Tungsten is a strategic metal prized for its exceptional hardness, high density, and the highest melting point of any element at 3,422 °C. These unique properties make it indispensable across a wide range of industrial and defense applications.
Despite its critical importance, Western countries remain heavily dependent on imports. The United States, for example, has not had domestic tungsten production since its last mine closed in 2015. Today, China dominates the global market, accounting for more than 80% of the total mine production.
In February, Beijing expanded its export control list to include multiple tungsten compounds, making overseas shipments subject to licensing. The Chinese government classifies tungsten as a “dual-use” material, reflecting its role in both civilian and military sectors. While many associate tungsten with cutting and drilling bits or lighting filaments, its strategic value also lies in the defense sector: its hardness makes it essential for armored vehicles and tanks, while its high melting point is critical for rocket and aircraft components. Notably, tungsten is indispensable in the production of both advanced armor and armor-piercing ammunition.
However, official customs data show a clear downward trend in Chinese tungsten exports. After a brief stabilization in 2023–2024, exports fell sharply again in the first half of 2025, down 24% compared with the same period a year earlier. Relative to the first half of 2021, volumes have been cut in half.
This tightening supply has translated into higher prices. Ammonium paratungstate (APT), the most widely traded tungsten intermediate, has climbed to record levels in recent months in both China and European markets, according to data from Argus Media.
In the first half of 2025, China’s main export destinations for tungsten compounds were Japan, the Netherlands, the United States, South Korea, and Germany, with smaller volumes shipped elsewhere. Strikingly, the United States imported no APT during this period. Instead, its purchases were dominated by ammonium metatungstate, a more specialized compound primarily used in catalysts and ceramics.
Efforts to break China’s near-monopoly have increased in recent months. The U.S. Department of Defense, for example, has made three investments into the domestic tungsten supply chain since 2024, with the latest being Golden Metal Resources, a subsidiary of U.K.-based Guardian Metals. The company secured $6.2 million under the Defense Production Act in July to advance its Pilot Mountain tungsten project in Nevada.
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