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Alarmed by the United States\u2019 exposure to China\u2019s rare earths chokehold, the Trump administration is accelerating efforts to identify and plug any of the country\u2019s other potential mineral vulnerabilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One such target is tungsten. Tungsten may not roll off of the tongue, or sound as alluring as rare earths, but the obscure metal is <\/span>known<\/span><\/a> for its density and exceptionally high melting point\u2014making it a key component in everything from turbine blades to munitions that can <\/span>pierce armor<\/span><\/a>. World powers have long clashed over tungsten, also known as wolfram; in World War II, for example, the <\/span>Allied countries<\/span><\/a> sought to <\/span>strangle Spanish tungsten flows<\/span><\/a> to Nazi Germany.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today, as with many of the world\u2019s mineral resources, China <\/span>overwhelmingly commands<\/span><\/a> global tungsten supply chains, accounting for some <\/span>80 percent<\/span><\/a> of tungsten concentrate production in 2024, although outside production has climbed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTungsten is another one of these tiny\u2014in terms of size\u2014but very critical markets, in particular from a national defense and an aerospace perspective,\u201d said Chris Berry, the president of House Mountain Partners, an independent metals analysis consultancy.<\/span><\/p>\n Though the United States <\/span>once produced tungsten<\/span><\/a>, the country hasn\u2019t commercially mined the material in about a decade, according to the <\/span>U.S. Geological Survey<\/span><\/a>, forcing U.S. firms to instead <\/span>depend<\/span><\/a> on imports and recycling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That may not have concerned U.S. policymakers a decade or so ago. But as minerals more broadly have become a flash point in recent U.S. trade spats with China, U.S. officials have grown increasingly desperate to diversify away from Beijing and seek new suppliers\u2014including by imposing a 25 percent tariff on tungsten in <\/span>2024<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n China, too, appears to have singled out tungsten as a geopolitical pressure point as it has retaliated against the Trump administration\u2019s trade measures this year. After President Donald Trump <\/span>unveiled 10 percent tariffs<\/span><\/a> on Chinese imports, Beijing broadly expanded export controls over <\/span>tungsten<\/a> <\/span>and other minerals in February.<\/span><\/p>\n U.S. manufacturers have felt the <\/span>financial pressures<\/span><\/a> of China\u2019s curbs, according to Oliver Friesen, the CEO of Guardian Metal Resources, a tungsten exploration and development company with projects in Nevada. \u201cThere\u2019s an acute shortage right now, and that\u2019s why we\u2019ve seen the price more than double,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n The Trump administration<\/span> is waging an aggressive campaign to resuscitate domestic mineral production and secure new supply chains globally. In the last few months, minerals have <\/span>dominated<\/span><\/a> many of the Trump administration\u2019s international deals; domestically, the U.S. leader is increasingly taking equity stakes in private mining firms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Among the U.S. leader\u2019s flurry of efforts, tungsten is increasingly making headlines.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Take, for example, Washington\u2019s recent <\/span>wave of diplomacy<\/span><\/a> with Central Asian leaders. The blitz <\/span>included the news<\/span><\/a> that U.S. mining investment firm Cove Capital and the government of Kazakhstan have agreed to develop a tungsten mining and processing plant in the latter country, backed by a $1.1 billion capital expenditure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Trump administration <\/span>helped negotiate<\/span><\/a> the deal, and according to a document seen by Reuters, the metal from the project will be used \u201cto prioritize U.S. government and American commercial needs.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yet by eyeing projects in Kazakhstan, the Trump administration may be venturing into relatively unfamiliar territory.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCentral Asia is not a straightforward area to do business,\u201d said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. \u201cHistorically, it is where China and Russia have dominated, not just in the mining, but in the infrastructure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n With this deal, the Trump administration is seeking to bring in both public and private capital, Baskaran added. According to Cove Capital, the U.S. Export-Import Bank has issued a <\/span>letter of interest<\/span><\/a> for $900 million in financing, while the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation also issued a letter of interest.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThese types of deals are messages to the foreign entities of concern\u2014mainly China\u2014that, look, the United States is serious about building supply chains that shift away from China,\u201d said Berry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Kazakhstan deal is only the latest effort to boost U.S. tungsten supply security. In July, the U.S. Defense Department <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> a $6.2 million award to Golden Metal Resources\u2014a subsidiary of Guardian Metal Resources\u2014to advance its Pilot Mountain tungsten project in <\/span>Nevada<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTungsten is an essential alloying metal for aerospace, ground vehicles, munitions, and many other defense systems,\u201d Vic Ramdass, acting assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy, said in a <\/span>statement<\/span><\/a> announcing the award. \u201cDeveloping a domestic source for tungsten is one of our top critical and strategic mineral priorities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Guardian Metal Resources is looking to deliver commercial production from both of its tungsten projects before Trump leaves office, Friesen, the CEO of Guardian Metal Resources, told <\/span>Foreign Policy.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Interest from U.S. lawmakers<\/span> has also surged. In June, the House Select Committee on China sent a <\/span>letter<\/span><\/a> to Almonty Industries, a Canada-based global mining company, inquiring about the company\u2019s \u201cintent to support U.S. national security needs\u201d through its tungsten mining project in South Korea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Almonty\u2019s South Korean deposit is one of the world\u2019s biggest tungsten resources, according to the <\/span>company<\/span><\/a>, and the firm agreed to <\/span>purchase a tungsten project<\/span><\/a> in Montana in October. Almonty Industries has also announced plans to redomicile from Canada to the United States, which would make the company a \u201cprimary U.S.-based producer\u201d of tungsten, the letter noted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe United States must secure a stable supply of tungsten ore and concentrates along with other minerals critical to U.S. national security,\u201d Republican Rep. John Moolenaar wrote in the letter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party will continue working this term on addressing the emerging national security threats from the PRC\u2019s domination of critical mineral supply chains beginning with Tungsten,\u201d Moolenaar <\/span>added<\/span><\/a>, using the acronym for the People\u2019s Republic of China.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For all of this attention, challenges loom over potential projects in Kazakhstan and in the United States. After all, securing new supply chains isn\u2019t just a question of locating a new resource; it also entails establishing a whole host of processing and manufacturing capabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGenerally, mining and processing projects come with a lot of risks that can affect timelines, and in a place like Kazakhstan, there\u2019s also a lot of infrastructure that will need to be built to support this project,\u201d said Baskaran.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt really is dependent on not just capital, but also permitting, technical know-how, infrastructure\u2014but it\u2019s an important first step,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Even with this new push, it will likely take at least several more years for the United States to begin domestic production, experts said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n