Almonty Industries (TSX:AII,ASX:AII,NASDAQ:ALM) is expanding its US footprint with the acquisition of a tungsten project in Montana, a move that could make it the first domestic producer of the critical metal in a decade.
The Toronto-based miner said it agreed to buy the site, which was previously operated by Union Carbide, through a combination of stock and cash payment, according to a Bloomberg report.
Subject to securing an extraction permit, the company also said it could restart mining there as soon as late next year using reconditioned equipment from its facilities in Spain.
Almonty Chief Executive Officer Lewis Black confirmed that the company has been in discussions with US defense agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), regarding potential long-term supply arrangements.
Rather than seeking government equity participation, Black said Almonty is proposing that the Pentagon make transparent, market-based tungsten purchases to strengthen domestic reserves.
The move comes as President Donald Trump has expanded exemptions from his global metals tariffs, removing tungsten, gold, graphite, and uranium from the list of materials subject to country-based levies.
China dominates the global tungsten market, producing roughly 67,000 tons annually, compared to zero from the United States. The metal is considered critical to both defense and emerging technologies, with applications ranging from armor-piercing ammunition to chips used in high-performance electronics.
The Montana acquisition complements Almonty’s growing global portfolio. The company operates the Panasqueira mine in Portugal and is nearing production at the Sangdong mine in South Korea, which is one of the world’s largest tungsten deposits outside China.
Almonty’s Nasdaq debut inJuly, backed by a US$90 million public offering (IPO), also strategically positioned the company as a key Western supplier ahead of a 2027 US policy that will ban tungsten sourced from China, Russia, or North Korea from entering Pentagon supply chains.
The firm holds a 15-year offtake agreement with a US defense contractor covering more than 90 percent of its initial production phase.
Once operational, the Montana project could produce tungsten concentrate for domestic refiners before being processed into tungsten carbide and other alloys.
The company’s shares have surged more than 600 percent over the past year, primarily driven by investor enthusiasm as trade tensions threaten the metal’s supply security.
Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
