This precious mineral that competes with gold is in short supply in the West, with 84% of global production in China last year

The tungsten wire in the light bulb at home may be the first impression many people have of the mineral element "tungsten". In fact, tungsten ore is known as the "industrial tooth" due to its ability to make extremely hard materials, meaning it can "bite" any hard solid

The tungsten wire in the light bulb at home may be the first impression many people have of the mineral element "tungsten". In fact, tungsten ore is known as the "industrial tooth" due to its ability to make extremely hard materials, meaning it can "bite" any hard solid.

In the last century, the price of tungsten was once higher than that of gold, as tungsten ore was an essential key material for national defense and military industry. In the early stages of World War I, German soldiers had tungsten containing barrels that could fire an average of 15000 rounds, while French non tungsten barrels that fired approximately 6000 rounds would be scrapped. Such a gap makes countries attach great importance to tungsten mineral resources. Nowadays, the armor piercing shells used by the US military also use tungsten cobalt alloy.

On October 30 of this year, a Canadian tungsten mining industry leader said in an interview that with the huge consumption of tungsten resources in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, tungsten reserves in western developed countries are in an emergency. According to official statistics from the United States, 84% of global tungsten production last year came from China. From years of continuous data, China can also be regarded as a country with absolute advantages in the tungsten mining field.

Wolframite ore

Canadian Miners:

Insufficient supply of tungsten mines outside of China

Lewis Blake, CEO of Canadian miner Almonty Industries, said in an interview on October 30 this year that, stimulated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, western countries are stepping up the production of ammunition to assist Ukraine, but the ammunition production is greatly limited to the scarcity of tungsten mine supply.

Black said, "Developed Western countries now have no ammunition inventory, and they also do not have the ability to increase production. Even the production of old-fashioned ammunition, which they have been producing for 30 years, cannot increase. Everyone is working overtime now, but there is no tungsten

According to data from the United States Geological Survey, China accounted for over 85% of global tungsten ore production in 2022. If we add Russia, the second largest producer, China and Russia account for about 90% of global tungsten supply. Other major exporting countries for tungsten mines include Vietnam, Bolivia, Austria, and others.

Blake stated that during the ammunition shortage, US government personnel recently visited the company's mines in Portugal, concerned about how to expand supply in the future. He pointed out that although the price of tungsten ore in the international market began to rise with the consumption of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the supply from outside China was always very scarce. In the past few decades, China's tungsten ore prices have become cheaper, effectively occupying market share and increasing its dominant position in the international market.

According to Blake, there are currently very few mature tungsten mines in Europe and America, except for a few major tungsten mines such as Austria and Portugal. In order to introduce more "non Chinese options" into the market, Almondy Company is working to reopen the Sangdong mine in Gangwon do, South Korea. The mine was closed in the 1990s due to a price war. It is estimated that by the time this mine can resume production, its production will account for 30% -35% of the total production outside of China.

Sangdong Mine, South Korea

Known as the "teeth of industry"

National defense and military industry highly rely on tungsten mines

The large-scale use of tungsten ore by humans has a history of over a hundred years, and the discovery of tungsten is quite legendary. As early as the 18th century, German miners discovered tungsten in tin mining. However, at that time, tungsten was considered a waste and impurity, and its presence actually hindered the efficiency of tin mining.

In the early 1920s, an engineer from the German light bulb company Osram replaced expensive diamonds with tungsten wire, significantly reducing the cost of light bulbs and applying to become the world's first hard alloy patent.

In 1926, the German military giant Krupp used tungsten alloy to make hard cutting heads, greatly improving machining efficiency, causing a sensation in the world and quickly becoming a strategic material for national defense and military. At that time, the price of one gram of tungsten alloy was higher than one gram of gold.

Tungsten is a heavy and hard metal with good wear resistance, commonly used in hard alloy tools for processing automotive parts and other products. In the national defense industry, it is used to make armor piercing shells, gun barrels, and precision electronic components in aerospace systems.

Due to the importance of tungsten, the Chinese government released the National Mineral Resources Plan in November 2016, officially listing tungsten as one of the 24 key strategic minerals. Japan, the European Union, and the United States have also listed tungsten ore as a key mineral.

On October 20th of this year, China proposed export control measures for graphite products, which sparked hype from Western countries about "key mineral safety". The spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce emphasized at the time that the Chinese government implements normal adjustments to export controls in accordance with the law, neither targeting any specific country or region, nor targeting any specific events. China has always been committed to ensuring the security and stability of the global industrial chain supply chain, and exports that comply with relevant regulations will be licensed.

Faced with the increasingly bottoming out of tungsten ore inventories in Western countries, Black stated the need to "face the worst-case scenario directly". Black said, "The worst scenario is to be cut off from supply, and the second worst scenario is a price collapse, which means that all alternative sources except China cannot maintain operations without sustained government subsidies

Rich reserves but limited supply

The Road to Upgrading China's Tungsten Industry

China has the world's largest tungsten reserves, with both the world's largest tungsten mine, Zhuxi tungsten mine, and the world's second largest tungsten mine, Hutang tungsten mine, located in Jiangxi Province, China. In addition, Hunan, Henan and other places in China also have rich mineral deposits.

The mining of tungsten mines often comes with challenges such as environmental pollution and geological damage. In order to ensure the utilization of national strategic mineral resources and maintain international market prices, China has adopted restrictive mining policies for tungsten mines in recent years. According to relevant documents from the Ministry of Natural Resources, China no longer accepts new applications for tungsten exploration and mining, and restricts small-scale tungsten mining. At present, China implements a strict quota system for tungsten concentrate mining and decomposes the quota to large and medium-sized mineral enterprises in various provinces, facilitating centralized management.

From 2016 to 2022, the total amount of tungsten mining in China increased slightly from 91300 tons to 109000 tons. Under the control of total mining volume, the supply of tungsten ore cannot be significantly increased. In 2022, the national production of tungsten concentrate was approximately 115000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 6.07%. However, from January to May 2023, China's tungsten concentrate production was approximately 41000 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 19.13%.

Under the limitation of total mining volume, China's tungsten mining industry is embarking on a path of upgrading, gradually bidding farewell to the low value-added and extensive mining model of the past.

According to the analysis of Dongcai Securities Research Report, with the technological iteration and upgrading, China has transitioned from the original supply of low-end raw materials to the supply of high-end end products.

The research report believes that in order to accelerate the overall development pace of the photovoltaic industry, cutting consumables for technological iteration and upgrading has become an inevitable trend. Due to the increasingly thin size of photovoltaic silicon wafers, the use of more wear-resistant and finer tungsten wires in their cutting materials has become an inevitable trend. However, the original high carbon steel itself has approached the limit of physical properties, making it difficult to grind it finer to meet the needs of the photovoltaic industry.

With the progress of Chinese enterprises in technological equipment and talent capabilities, projects that are more suitable for market demand are constantly being launched. Recently, China has opened a new photovoltaic tungsten wire construction project with an annual output of 60 billion meters in Xiamen, which is expected to be put into operation next year. The "Research and Development Project of Ultrafine Tungsten Wire for Photovoltaics" is also in the process of development.

From tungsten wires in light bulbs to diamond wires for cutting photovoltaic silicon wafers, the path of technological upgrading in China's tungsten industry has just begun.

Red Star News Reporter Zheng Zhi

Editor Peng Jiang, responsible editor Wei Kongming

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