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, and historians estimate Portugal took in more than 100 tonnes of it.1
The Allies fought back the only way they could, buying every pound of Portuguese wolfram before Germany could, and the bidding war sent the price up roughly 30 times.2
They called it the Wolfram Wars. Wolfram is another 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 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 and the Western mines went dark. Borralha closed, and the United States has not mined a pound of tungsten since 2015.4 The story sat frozen for forty years. Then, in February 2025, China imposed export controls and turned off the tap.5
The price has since risen roughly nine times, from about $340 to more than $3,000 per unit.67
The company that owns Borralha today is suddenly holding one of the most strategic mining assets in the Western world: Allied Critical Metals Inc. (CSE:ACM) (OTCQB:ACMIF).
Strategic investors just committed $40 million to fast-track production this year.8 A former US Secretary of Homeland Security and a retired Army Major General sit on its US board,9 and its second project targets first concentrate in the fourth quarter of 2026.10
The Metal in Every Bullet, Every Microchip, and Every Electric Car
Tungsten is nearly twice as dense as steel and has the highest melting point of any metal, around 3,400 degrees Celsius.11 When something must survive extreme heat and impact it is usually the only answer, and the US Geological Survey notes most substitutes reduce rather than replace it.12
Armor-piercing rounds, shells, missiles, and tank armor rely on it, the reason defense agencies appear in the company’s first off-take.13 Advanced chips need it in their wiring, so the AI buildout is quietly a tungsten buildout,14 there is roughly 2 kilograms in every electric vehicle,15 and about 60% of US tungsten goes into the carbide tools that cut and grind everything else.16
The Market Has Already Voted: What Portuguese Tungsten Is Worth
To see what a Western tungsten producer is worth right now, look at Almonty Industries (NASDAQ:ALM) (TSX:AII), for years a quiet developer most investors ignored, until the tungsten price exploded.
In Q1 2026, Almonty’s revenue jumped 221% to $25.4 million on record pricing and strong Panasqueira output, it commissioned its giant Sangdong mine in South Korea in March,18 and on June 29 it joins the Russell 1000 and 3000 indexes.19
The stock has more than doubled in 2026, and Almonty now carries a market cap of roughly $4.5 billion.20 Its producing mine sits in Portugal, the same belt where Allied is developing two projects with first concentrate targeted for Q4 this year, at a market cap of roughly C$433 million.21 The market has priced what Portuguese production is worth, but not yet the next company to deliver it.
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 Writing Cheques
Start with one number: 83. China controls roughly 83% of global tungsten mine production, and with Russia and North Korea about 87% of supply sits in non-Western hands.22 North America produces none. In February 2025 China imposed export controls, then limited exports to a whitelist of just 15 companies, and exports of ammonium paratungstate, the key processed form, collapsed by roughly 70% toward zero by early 2026.23
Reuters reported record prices in January 2026,24 European APT roared from about $900 to $1,900 per unit by mid-February,25 and by late April passed $3,000, around $3,050 in May.26
Western governments are not watching from the sidelines. In March 2025 President Trump signed Executive Order 14241 to boost American mineral production,27 the Pentagon is funding tungsten projects directly,28 and US tariffs on some Chinese tungsten products rose to 50%.29 The Department of Defense calls a domestic source a top critical-mineral priority,30 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act put $7.5 billion behind critical minerals, including $2 billion to expand the National Defense Stockpile.3132
The deadline: starting January 1, 2027, US defense rules bar the Pentagon from acquiring tungsten mined, refined, or produced in China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea.33 The American defense industry has months to find allied supply, and the country that controls 83% of it is off the list. Tungsten 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 sets 2030 extraction targets,34 a 33% anti-dumping duty on Chinese tungsten carbide has stood for decades,35 tungsten made the shortlist for the EU’s first joint stockpile in May 2026,36 and NATO has pledged to lift defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.37
Billions in government money, a hard deadline, a nine-times price move, almost no Western production. This is the moment Allied was built for.
8 Reasons
This Could Be the Defining Western Tungsten Story of 2026
1
Production this year, not this decade. First concentrate is targeted from the Vila Verde pilot plant in Q4 2026. Most Western hopefuls are years behind.38
2
It is fully funded. Once closed the company will have over $45 million in cash and will be funded for 12 months. A $40 million strategic investment was announced in April 2026.39
3
The product is already sold. A binding off-take covers 50% of pilot output for five years at a $1,000 floor, with US and Portuguese defense flexibility, plus an LOI with US processor Global Tungsten & Powders.40
4
Built for a far lower price. Borralha’s study shows a $346.6 million NPV and 48.8% IRR at $1,000 per unit, designed at just $659. The market is near $3,000.41
5
The drill bit keeps delivering. Borralha returned 12 metres at 4.27% tungsten, including 6 metres at 8.39%, among the highest grades reported in Western exploration.42
6
Governments have stamped it. idD Portugal Defense has endorsed Borralha as nationally important, and Portugal granted its environmental approval in January 2026.43
7
A national-security board. Former US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and retired Major General James “Spider” Marks sit on the board of Allied Critical Metals USA.44
8
Stacked, dated catalysts. A TSX Venture listing in process, a Nasdaq filing to follow, first assays from a 20,000-metre campaign imminent, and insiders lifting ownership to about 14%.45
Two Mines, One Plan: Cash Flow This Year, Scale Next Year
Most junior miners have one asset and a long wait. Allied built a two-speed machine.
Vila Verde, the near-term engine, was Portugal’s third-largest tungsten mine until it closed in 1986, and it still holds extensive tailings of unrecovered tungsten.46 The plan is simple: a pilot plant concentrating that material with gravity and magnets, no exotic chemistry, at 150,000 tonnes per year with room to double.47 It is funded by $15 million in project debt rather than new shares, so shareholders are not diluted, engineering is complete, and the company has already produced its first wolframite concentrates.4849
Borralha is the flagship. In November 2025 Allied raised the resource to 13.0 million tonnes Measured and Indicated at 0.21% tungsten, plus 7.7 million tonnes Inferred.50 The study runs to a $706.4 million NPV and 78.4% IRR at $1,500 per unit, on about $91 million of initial capital, a 4.2-year payback, and all-in sustaining costs near $303 against a $3,000 market.51
The deposit has a quiet edge: Borralha’s tungsten is ferberite, a magnetic form showing 95% recoveries in early work.52 It is still growing, with over 200 metres of breccia hit at a new Venise target in April 2026 and six rigs now turning.5354
One note of caution: the economic study is preliminary, includes Inferred resources, and there is no certainty it will be realized, while the pilot plant is not based on a mineral resource estimate. 55 That is standard risk language, and also why the opportunity exists at this price.
The Valuation Gap: A Western Producer-in-Waiting at a Fraction of Its Peers
Every company valued above Allied is either already producing or years from production. The structure is tight: about 173.85 million shares, institutions and strategic holders near 32%,56 insiders about 14% after open-market buying,57 and the last financing was priced at $2.05 per share with strategic money, not a discounted retail raise.58
The Window: Production Is Months Away, Not Years
Step back. China controls 83% of tungsten and has choked off exports, the price is up roughly nine times, and the Pentagon’s ban on Chinese tungsten takes full effect January 1, 2027.59 Washington has put $7.5 billion behind critical minerals, the EU is stockpiling tungsten, and Almonty has shown the destination: a multibillion-dollar valuation for Western tungsten production.
Allied is fully funded, government-endorsed, defense-connected, and targeting production in the fourth quarter of 2026, with first assays, a TSX Venture listing, a Nasdaq filing, and first concentrate all due in the months ahead. By the time the production headline prints, the early window will likely be closed.
*All figures in US dollars unless otherwise stated
