Almonty Turns the Key on a $68 Million Tungsten Hoard as Western Buyers Circle

The ore pile at Almonty Industries’ Sangdong mine in South Korea has been growing for months — 139,700 tonnes of rock sitting idle while construction crews finished the processing plant. That pile is now moving through the crushers and flotation cells. In June 2026, Almonty began commercial operations at the deposit, transforming a multi-month stockpile into a stream of tungsten concentrate destined for Western supply chains desperate for an alternative to Chinese material.

The company estimates the built-up ore has a gross value of roughly $68 million at current prices. The blend breaks down to 120,000 tonnes of stockpiled ore from the first quarter at 0.24% tungsten trioxide, plus 19,700 tonnes of development ore added in the second quarter at a richer 0.35% grade. The combined grade lands at about 0.25% — already three times the grade of Almonty’s Panasqueira mine in Portugal, which remains the cash engine for now.

Management is deliberately taking a measured ramp-up. Low-grade material enters the plant first while teams fine-tune the metallurgy and ore blending. The existing stockpile covers roughly 2.6 months of processing at the initial capacity, giving the company a buffer to stabilize output. Underground development continues in parallel; Almonty added 214.6 metres of new drifts in recent weeks, primarily along the main vein.

The timing coincides with a pricing sweet spot. Tungsten has hit historic highs amid Chinese export controls and US defense procurement restrictions that penalize reliance on Chinese supply. Sangdong, one of the largest and highest-grade tungsten deposits on record, is positioned to anchor a fully integrated value chain that includes a planned downstream oxide plant and long-term offtake agreements. Lewis Black, Almonty’s chief executive, sees the asset as central to Western security-of-supply objectives.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Almonty?

Even before Sangdong contributed a single dollar of revenue, the existing business was accelerating. First-quarter 2026 revenue surged 221% to $25.4 million, driven by Panasqueira’s tripled output. Operating cash flow came in at $9.7 million positive, adjusted EBITDA hit $6.1 million, and the company held $259.9 million in cash with working capital of $169.5 million. The strong balance sheet was further bolstered in early June by a $700 million convertible note priced at 2.25% with a 2031 maturity, plus an underwriter option for an additional $100 million. Roughly $50 million of the proceeds will retire existing debt; the remaining $543 million is earmarked for working capital and potential acquisitions.

Index inclusion followed swiftly. On June 29, 2026, Almonty joined the Russell 1000 and Russell 3000 indexes, a shift Black called “achieved on the numbers, not by invitation.” The move opens the stock to institutional funds that track the benchmarks and previously could not hold the shares. Yet the market did not cheer: in the week after the rebalancing, the stock slid roughly 13% to C$22.33, slipping below its 50-day moving average. Annualised volatility stands at a striking 91%, though the shares remain up about 86% year-to-date and have more than tripled over the past twelve months.

Attention now shifts to execution. The $68 million theoretical value of the stockpile must translate into sales, and the plant’s early teething issues — typical for any new facility — will determine how quickly Sangdong reaches full throughput. For Almonty, the next few quarters will show whether the geopolitical tailwinds and the massive ore body can finally turn a long‑running development story into a steady cash flow.