The last time the world fought over this metal, it was paid for in gold bars.
During World War II, neutral Portugal sat on Europe’s richest deposits of a mineral the locals called wolfram. Nazi Germany needed it so badly that Salazar insisted on payment in gold. He knew the currency of whichever side lost the war would be worthless. Historians estimate Portugal took in more than 100 tonnes of it.1
The Allies fought back the only way they could. They tried to buy every pound of Portuguese wolfram before Germany did, and the bidding war sent the price up roughly 30 times.2
They called it the Wolfram Wars. Wolfram is the old name for tungsten.
One of the mines feeding that frenzy sat in the hills of northern Portugal, a place called Borralha. It produced tungsten from 1904 all the way to 1985, more than 10,000 tonnes of concentrate at a remarkable average grade of 66%.3
Then in 1986, China flooded the world with cheap tungsten. Western mines could not compete, and one by one, they went dark. Borralha closed. The United States has not mined a single pound of tungsten since 2015.4
For forty years, the story sat frozen. Then, in February 2025, China imposed export controls on tungsten and turned off the tap.5
The price of tungsten has since gone up roughly nine times, from about $340 to more than $3,000 per unit.67
And the company that owns Borralha today is suddenly holding one of the most strategic mining assets in the Western world.
That company is Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF).
Strategic investors just committed $40 million to fast-track it into production this year.8 A former US Secretary of Homeland Security and a retired US Army Major General sit on the board of its American subsidiary.9 And its second project is targeted to start producing tungsten concentrate in the fourth quarter of 2026.10
That is the asset. That is the timing. And that is just the start.
The Metal in Every Bullet, Every Microchip, and Every Electric Car
Before we get back to Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF), here is what you need to know about tungsten.
Tungsten is nearly twice as dense as steel and has the highest melting point of any metal, around 3,400 degrees Celsius. Steel melts at less than half that.11
When something has to survive extreme heat and extreme impact, tungsten is usually the only answer. The US Geological Survey notes that most substitutes reduce, rather than replace, the tungsten required.12
That is why it shows up in four places that matter:
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- Military. Armor-piercing rounds, artillery shells, missiles, and tank armor all rely on tungsten. Militaries treat it as a war material, which is why Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) counts defense agencies in its first off-take agreement.1314
- Semiconductors and AI. Advanced chips cannot be made without tungsten, which is used in the wiring inside semiconductors. The AI buildout is quietly a tungsten buildout.15
- Electric vehicles. There is roughly 2 kilograms of tungsten in every EV, and next-generation tungsten batteries would need even more.16
- Manufacturing. Tungsten carbide is the tooth of modern industry. It’s the material behind robotic arms and heavy machinery.17 It is what cuts, drills, and grinds nearly everything else, and about 60% of US tungsten goes into these cutting and wear-resistant parts.18
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So the entire modern economy runs on this metal. Almost nobody in the West produces it. And the one country that dominates it just started restricting who gets it.
That is the gap Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) was built to fill. And the market has already shown what happens to the companies that fill it.
The Market Has Already Voted: Almonty Became an $8 Billion Company Selling Tungsten From Portugal
If you want to know what a Western tungsten producer is worth right now, look at Almonty Industries (NASDAQ:ALM) (TSX:AII). It is the company Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) gets compared to most, and for good reason.

Source: Google Finance – 2026-06-09
For years, Almonty was a quiet developer that most investors ignored. Then, the tungsten price exploded, and everything changed.
In the first quarter of 2026, Almonty’s revenue jumped 221% to $25.4 million, driven by record tungsten pricing and strong output from its Panasqueira mine.19
On March 17, 2026, the company held the formal commissioning ceremony at its giant Sangdong mine in South Korea, one of the largest tungsten deposits in the world.20
On June 29, 2026, Almonty joins the Russell 1000 and Russell 3000 indexes, the benchmarks behind roughly $12.2 trillion in assets.21 The stock has more than doubled in 2026 alone.22 Today, Almonty carries a market cap of roughly $4.5 billion (C$6B).
Keep that path in mind, because Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) is earlier on the exact same curve.
Almonty’s producing Panasqueira mine is in Portugal. The same country. The same mining belt. The same defense customers are hungry for non-Chinese tungsten.23
Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) is developing its two tungsten projects in that same country, with first tungsten concentrate production targeted for the fourth quarter of this year,24 at a market cap of roughly C$343 million.25
The market has already priced what Portuguese tungsten production is worth. It just has not finished pricing the next company to deliver it, and that next company is Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF).
To understand why the window exists at all, you need to see what China just did.
Press Releases
- Allied Critical Metals Announces Closing of First Tranche of Strategic Financing
- Allied Critical Metals Establishes “Social Monitoring and Advisory Committee of the Borralha Mine Project”
- Allied Critical Metals Announces Intent to List on the TSX Venture Exchange
- Allied Critical Metals Announces Transformative U.S.$40 Million Financing Package to Fast-Track Tungsten Concentrates Production
China Turned Off the Tap, and Washington and Brussels Are Now Writing Cheques
Start with one number: 83.
China controls roughly 83% of global tungsten mine production. Add Russia and North Korea, and about 87% of the world’s supply sits in non-Western hands.26 North America produces none, and the US Geological Survey confirms tungsten has not been mined commercially in the United States since 2015.27 That scarcity is the entire investment case for Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF).
In February 2025, China implemented export controls on tungsten products.28 Beijing then restricted tungsten exports to a whitelist of just 15 approved companies, and Chinese exports of ammonium paratungstate (APT), the key processed form of tungsten, collapsed by roughly 70% before approaching zero in early 2026.29 Every Western buyer suddenly needed a new supplier, which is exactly where Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) comes in.
The price did exactly what you would expect. Reuters reported all-time record tungsten prices in January 2026,30 Fastmarkets tracked European APT roaring from about $900-$940 per unit in January to as high as $1,900 by mid-February,31 and by late April it had passed $3,000, still holding around $3,050 in May.32,33
Every dollar of that move flows straight toward the future margins of Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF), as you are about to see.

European tungsten APT price versus the price scenarios in Borralha’s economic study. Chart created from Fastmarkets and Reuters pricing as disclosed by Allied Critical Metals and industry sources, with PEA scenarios from the company’s April 14, 2026 technical report.34
Western governments are not watching from the sidelines. They are spending.
In March 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14241 to ramp up American mineral production,35 and the Pentagon is using it to fund tungsten projects directly.36 US tariffs on several Chinese tungsten products were raised to 50% at the end of 2024,37 and Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) sits on the right side of every one of those measures.
The US Department of Defense has called developing a domestic tungsten source “one of our top critical and strategic mineral priorities,” and its Defense Production Act office made nine critical-minerals awards worth $326.1 million since the beginning of fiscal 2025.38
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act then appropriated $7.5 billion for critical minerals,39 including $2 billion to expand the National Defense Stockpile.40
Allied tungsten producers, which is exactly what Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) is building in Portugal, are what all of that money is hunting for.
Now comes the deadline that turns urgency into panic.
Starting January 1, 2027, US defense rules prohibit the Pentagon from acquiring tungsten that was mined, refined, or produced in China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea, at any stage of the supply chain.41 Read that again. The entire American defense industry has months to find allied tungsten, and the country that controls 83% of it is off the list. Tungsten from Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF), mined inside NATO member Portugal, checks every box.
Europe is moving just as fast. The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act names tungsten one of just 17 strategic raw materials and demands that by 2030 the EU extract 10% of what it consumes and rely on no single foreign country for more than 65% of any material.42
The EU has kept a 33% anti-dumping duty on Chinese tungsten carbide in place for decades.43 In May 2026, Reuters reported tungsten made the shortlist for the EU’s first-ever joint critical minerals stockpile,44 and all of NATO has pledged to lift defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, with 1.5% earmarked for supply chains and the defense industrial base.45
Billions in government money. A hard legal deadline. A 9x price move. And almost no Western production. This is the moment Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) was built for.
8 Reasons
This Could Be the Defining Western Tungsten Story of 2026
1
Production is targeted for this year, not this decade. Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) is targeting first tungsten concentrate production from its Vila Verde pilot plant in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and equipment deliveries. Most Western tungsten hopefuls are years behind that.46
2
It is fully funded. The company holds over $45 million in total cash availability and states it is fully funded for the next 12 months, after closing a transformational $40 million strategic financing package in April 2026.47
3
The product is already sold. A binding off-take agreement covers 50% of pilot plant production for five years with a 2026 floor price of $1,000 per unit, with built-in flexibility for purchases by agencies of the US Department of War and the Portuguese defense sector.48 Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) has also signed a letter of intent with Global Tungsten & Powders of Pennsylvania, the same US processor at the center of America’s tungsten supply rebuild.49
4
The flagship economics were built for a far lower price. Borralha’s economic study shows an after-tax NPV of $346.6 million and a 48.8% IRR at $1,000 per unit, with the mine plan designed at a conservative $659.50 The market price is now around $3,000, roughly 4.6x the design assumption.51
5
The drill bit keeps delivering. In September 2025, Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) reported 12 metres at 4.27% tungsten at Borralha, including 6 metres at 8.39%, which the company called one of the highest-grade tungsten intercepts reported in Western exploration.52
6
Governments have already stamped it. idD Portugal Defense has endorsed Borralha as a strategic initiative of national importance, and Portugal’s environment agency granted the project its key environmental approval in January 2026.53
7
The board reads like a national security roster. Former US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and retired Major General James “Spider” Marks, former Commanding General of the US Army Intelligence Center, sit on the board of Allied Critical Metals USA.54
8
The catalysts are stacked and dated. A TSX Venture Exchange listing is in process,55 a Nasdaq listing filing is planned to follow, first assays from a 20,000-metre drill campaign are expected imminently, and insiders just bought Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) stock on the open market, lifting their ownership to about 14%.56
Eight reasons. Each one stands on its own. Together, they describe a setup that does not come along often.

Two Mines, One Plan: Cash Flow This Year, Scale Next Year
Most junior miners have one asset and one long wait. Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) built a two-speed machine.
Speed one: Vila Verde, the near-term engine.
Vila Verde was the third-largest tungsten mine in Portugal until it closed in 1986.57 The site still holds extensive tailings and surface material carrying tungsten that was never recovered.
The plan is simple. Build a pilot plant that crushes, grinds, and concentrates that material using gravity and magnets, no exotic chemistry required, at 150,000 tonnes per year with room to double.58
The plant is funded by $15 million in project financing from a strategic investor, structured as debt rather than new shares, so Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) shareholders are not being diluted to build it.59 Engineering is complete, long-lead equipment is being procured, and the company has already produced its first wolframite concentrates in test work.60
First production is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and timely equipment delivery.61

Speed two: Borralha, the flagship.
In November 2025, Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) announced a material increase to Borralha’s resource: 13.0 million tonnes of Measured and Indicated material at 0.21% tungsten, plus 7.7 million tonnes Inferred, a roughly 2.6 times jump in higher-confidence tonnage in a single year.62
The March 2026 economic study put real numbers on it. After-tax NPV of $346.6 million and a 48.8% IRR at $1,000 per unit, rising to $706.4 million and 78.4% at $1,500.63
Initial capital is about $91 million, payback is just 4.2 years from the start of production at the medium case, and all-in sustaining costs are roughly $303 per unit against a $3,000 market.64
The deposit also has a quiet advantage. Borralha’s tungsten is ferberite, a magnetic form of the mineral, and preliminary test work for Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) shows 95% recoveries with simple processing.65
And the deposit is still growing. In April 2026, drilling hit over 200 metres of mineralized breccia at a brand new target called Venise, just 400 metres from the deposit that underpins the entire mine plan. Six rigs are now turning, with the 20,000-metre campaign set to finish by the end of July and first assays expected in early June.67

Permitting, normally the slowest part of any mining story, is where Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) is furthest ahead.
Borralha received its Environmental Impact Declaration in January 202668 and is advancing through final engineering toward construction, targeting industrial production around 2027.69

Of note: The economic study is preliminary, includes Inferred resources, and there is no certainty it will be realized, while the pilot plant is an infrastructure project that is not based on a mineral resource estimate.70 That is the standard risk language, and it is worth reading. But it is also why the opportunity in Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) exists at this price.
A Seat Inside the Western Defense Supply Chain
Why Two National Security Heavyweights Joined a Junior Miner’s Board
Here is a sentence you will not find in many junior mining stories.
The off-take agreement for the first production from Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) explicitly provides flexibility for purchases by agencies associated with the United States Department of War and the Portuguese defense sector, including idD Portugal Defense, which has recognized Borralha as strategically important for Portugal, Europe, and NATO supply chains.71
That is the defense customer base written directly into the company’s first sales contract.
Now connect the dots. NATO members have pledged to spend 5% of GDP on defense by 2035.72 The EU is building its first coordinated stockpile, with tungsten on the shortlist.73 The Pentagon’s Chinese tungsten ban arrives January 1, 2027.74
Every one of those buyers needs Western sources of tungsten, and Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) is positioned inside the EU and NATO, in a stable, mining-friendly country, with government endorsement already in hand.
This is where the board matters.
Kirstjen Nielsen served as US Secretary of Homeland Security, leading cyber, counterterrorism, and critical infrastructure protection at the highest level of the US government.
Major General (Ret.) James “Spider” Marks brings more than 40 years of military and intelligence leadership, including command of the US Army Intelligence Center.75 In May 2026 he represented Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) at the Commodities Global Expo in Washington, D.C.
People like that do not lend their names to projects they think will fail. They join companies positioned to sell war metal to the governments they serve.
Where the Valuation Sits Today
A 20x Gap to the Closest Comparable, in the Same Country


Look at where Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) sits on that chart. Every company valued above it is either already producing or still years from production, and it is the only one positioned to bridge that gap this calendar year.76
The capital structure is tight for a story this advanced. About 173.85 million shares outstanding, with institutions and strategic holders at roughly 32% and insiders at about 14% after buying stock on the open market in May.78
And the last financing for Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) was priced at $2.05 per share with strategic money, not a discounted retail raise.79
This is the early stage. The pre-revaluation stage. The part of the story most people only recognize afterward.
Built by Mining Operators, Backed by Defense Insiders
Companies are built by people, and the team at Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) pairs Portuguese mining depth with North American capital markets muscle.
Add the US board of Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF), Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Major General (Ret.) Spider Marks, plus a board chaired by securities lawyer Sean O’Neill, and you have a group few juniors can match.
Professional analysts are arriving too. Diamond Equity Research initiated a 12-month coverage engagement in May 2026, and the company presented at Ventum Financial’s “Tungsten Titans” conference in Montreal.80
The community is on side as well. In April 2026, Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) established Portugal’s first Social Monitoring and Advisory Committee for a mine, with participation from the municipality, farmers, academia, and local residents.81
The Window: Production Is Months Away, Not Years. Why This Story Deserves Your Attention Right Now
Step back and look at what is stacked up.
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- China controls 83% of tungsten supply and has choked off exports.
- The price is up roughly 9x, to about $3,000 per unit.
- The Pentagon’s ban on Chinese tungsten takes full effect January 1, 2027.82
- Washington has put $7.5 billion behind critical minerals, and the EU is stockpiling tungsten.
- Almonty showed the destination: a $4.5 billion valuation for Western tungsten production.83
- Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) is fully funded, government-endorsed, defense-connected, and targeting production in the fourth quarter of 2026.84
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The next few months are loaded. First assays from six drill rigs. A TSX Venture listing expected within weeks. A Nasdaq filing to follow. Pilot plant equipment arriving. First concentrate targeted before year end.85
By the time the production headline prints, the early window in Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF) will likely be closed. That is why the next step is simple.
*All figures in US dollars unless otherwise stated
Roy BonnellCEO and Director.
João BarrosPresident, COO and Director.
Vítor ArezesVP Exploration.
Sean ChoiCFO.