Sangdong tungsten mine in South Korea returns to production after 30 years

Almonty Industries (NASDAQ: ALM) (TSX: AII) announced Monday the completion of Phase 1 commissioning at its Sangdong tungsten mine in South Korea –marking the return to production after more than 30 years. 

Phase 1 of the Sangdong mine in Gangwon Province is now commissioned and producing, with the processing plant designed to handle approximately 640,000 tonnes of ore annually, yielding roughly 2,300 tonnes of tungsten concentrate per year.  

A planned Phase 2 expansion, expected to come online in 2027, is designed to increase processing capacity to approximately 1.2 million tonnes of ore annually, doubling tungsten output to roughly 4,600 tonnes per year, the company said.

Sangdong has an expected mine life exceeding 45 years and an average ore grade of approximately 0.51% tungsten trioxide (WO₃), roughly three times the global average. At full capacity, Sangdong is expected to supply ~40% of global tungsten demand outside China, Almonty said.

Tungsten is a smaller market, but the industries that depend on it are getting exponentially bigger, and it is the material of choice for a key defense application – what the military calls penetrators – high-density, armour-piercing projectiles. Its also required in US Department of Defence (now War) contracts.  

Tungsten production in the US ceased in 2015. The US had been mining tungsten, but it was no longer commercially viable due to low prices and competition from China, which controls over 80% of global production.  

The Sangdong mine was historically one of the world’s largest tungsten producers before operations were suspended in the early 1990s following a prolonged downturn in commodity prices. Since acquiring the project in 2015, Almonty has invested more than $100 million to redevelop the site as a modern underground mining operation with a newly constructed processing plant.  

The redevelopment includes approximately four kilometers of underground tunnel development, a mineral processing plant equipped with SAG and ball mills supplied by Metso, and advanced operational monitoring systems. 

“The completion of Phase 1 at the Sangdong tungsten mine marks the culmination of more than a decade of investment and development,” Almonty CEO Lewis Black said in a news release.  

 “This is a significant milestone in the effort by the United States and its allies to diversify supply chains for critical minerals away from China, which currently produces approximately 88% of the world’s tungsten supply. With commissioning now complete, our focus turns to optimizing throughput and advancing toward full commercial production,” Lewis said.  

“Looking ahead, the Phase 2 expansion and the development of our tungsten oxide facility and the adjacent Sangdong Molybdenum deposit will form the foundation of what we refer to as the ‘Korean Trinity’ – a fully integrated strategic-mineral value chain that positions South Korea as a global hub for the production, refining, and upgrading of tungsten.”