The United States has opened the way to resume production at an abandoned mine in Korea to secure tungsten, a strategic mineral whose exports China has blocked. Tungsten, which is used in semiconductors and defense industries for its resistance to high heat, high impact and high wear, has drawn attention not only in the United States but also from Japanese foreign media.
On Sunday, The New York Times (NYT) analyzed the significance of the Sangdong mine's restart in an article titled "The Korean Mine at the Center of America's Tungsten Mining."
According to the NYT, Almonty Industries, a US tungsten specialist, resumed mining in March this year at the Sangdong mine in Yeongwol, Gangwon Province, for the first time in 32 years. Almonty said the Sangdong mine holds 58 million tons of tungsten, the largest reserves for a single mine in the world. Almonty expects mining to be possible for about 45 years along a tunnel more than 3 kilometers underground.
Of the 2,600 tons of tungsten produced annually, 2,100 tons will be exported to the United States under contract, and the company plans to produce a total of 4,600 tons of tungsten oxide annually through future plant expansion. While this is smaller than China, which produces 67,000 tons each year, it is enough to leap to second place in global production in one stroke. Vietnam, currently in second place, produces 3,400 tons annually, and Russia, in third place, produces 2,000 tons.
Tungsten is a strategic mineral essential to advanced industries such as semiconductors, precision machining, construction, displays and missiles. With its high melting point, density and strength, it maintains high stability even in extreme environments. Since an "outcrop," a clue to the ore vein, was discovered at the Sangdong mine in 1916, it generated such high added value that it accounted for up to 70% of Korea's gross domestic product (GDP) in the mid-1950s, and it produced 2,700 tons of tungsten annually until 1985, exporting to Japan and other countries. A new term, "jungseokbul" (重石弗), meaning "dollars earned from tungsten exports," even became popular.
The Sangdong mine went into decline in the 1990s, when low-priced Chinese tungsten repeatedly waged a volume offensive. Having lost its price competitiveness, the Sangdong mine eventually decided to close in 1994, after which operating rights passed among Canadian companies until Almonty acquired it in 2015 and continued investing for 10 years.
Ironically, the Sangdong mine came back into the spotlight because of China, which accounts for 85% of global tungsten production. China caused prices to surge as it rolled out sweeping tungsten export controls last year, and it has further strengthened its market dominance by recently securing mining rights to the Bogutty mine in Kazakhstan. The United States has struck back, supporting a US company's development of a Kazakhstan tungsten mine last year and pushing to ban defense contractors from using Chinese tungsten starting next year.
Almonty, which was founded in Toronto, Canada, also plunged in earnest into the increasingly fierce US strategic mineral market, listing on the US Nasdaq last year before relocating its headquarters to the state of Montana this year.
With China having effectively halted tungsten exports to Japan, with which its relations have deteriorated, Japan has also taken note of the Sangdong mine. Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported the news of the Sangdong mine's restart on Nov. 26, saying, "Korean tungsten has the potential to become a key resource for advanced industries."
