American Tungsten Corp. (TSXV: TUNG, OTCQB: DEMRF)
Building America’s Defense Critical Metals Supply
Tungsten—the super-dense metal known as the “industrial tooth”—is in the grip of a historic price surge. Since last February, tungsten has dramatically outperformed gold, copper, and oil. With global buyers unable to secure cargo even with cash in hand, a quiet player in Southeast Asia has been shoved into the center of a high-stakes supply chain battle: Vietnam.
The price shock is fueled by a collision of three forces.
On the supply side, China wields near-total dominance. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, global tungsten production in 2025 stood at roughly 85,000 metric tons. China alone accounted for 67,000 tons—a commanding 79% share. But last February, Beijing added select tungsten products to its export control list. In the year that followed, shipments of restricted tungsten categories plunged by approximately 40%. With new mining capacity outside China years away from materializing, the supply-demand imbalance is locked in for the foreseeable future.
At the same time, demand is surging across three critical vectors: photovoltaic tungsten wire, advanced-node semiconductors, and defense. Industry forecasts suggest that penetration of tungsten wire in solar panel cutting will exceed 80% by 2026, adding more than 5% to global tungsten consumption on its own. Demand for high-purity tungsten in sub-3nm chip fabrication is climbing steeply, and military consumption is projected to rise 12% this year alone.
As American, Japanese, and European buyers scramble for alternatives to Chinese supply, attention has converged on the Nui Phao mine in Vietnam’s Thai Nguyen province. Nui Phao is the largest and most significant tungsten operation outside of China. USGS figures place Vietnam as the world’s No. 2 producer in 2025, churning out roughly 3,000 tons. That is a sliver compared to China’s 67,000-ton giant—but in a market gasping for material, those 3,000 tons carry disproportionate geopolitical weight.
The mine is owned by Masan High-Tech Materials, a subsidiary of Vietnamese conglomerate Masan Group. Alongside tungsten, the asset yields fluorspar, bismuth, and copper. Permitted through 2034, the company is moving to exploit an estimated 28 million tons of underground reserves and has already filed for an exploration license for the deposit’s western section.
The price rally has accelerated Masan’s search for deep-pocketed strategic partners. “We’ve been in discussions with Japanese, Australian, European, and American strategic investors,” Masan Group Deputy CEO Michael Hung Nguyen told Bloomberg News. “A great deal of interest is driven by the need to lock in supply.” CEO Danny Le added that Masan High-Tech aims to transfer its listing from Vietnam’s Unlisted Public Company Market to the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange as early as the first quarter of 2027. To attract a cornerstone investor, the company is prepared to offer long-term offtake agreements.
But the barriers to entry stretch far beyond the size of a check. “Critical minerals are an extremely sensitive sector in Vietnam,” warns Nguyen Khac Giang, Visiting Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. “Selecting a partner is effectively selecting a long-term technology partner. Hanoi will scrutinize any deal not just for the financial terms, but for alignment with Vietnam’s ambition to climb the industrial value chain.” In essence, the government’s priority is technology transfer, downstream processing capability, and domestic value retention.
With just 3,000 tons of annual output against an 85,000-ton global market, Vietnam is hardly positioned to single-handedly “fill the gap” left by China. At best, it provides marginal relief. Yet in a market where availability trumps price—and panic is setting in—having one more source of metal is enough to send capital rushing in from all corners. The runaway price of tungsten is a clear symptom of a global repricing of strategic resources. The fight over these “industrial teeth” is only just heating up.
