Top 8 tungsten producing countries

The below article was published by Tungsten Investing News quoting production data from the US Geological Society


Top 8 Tungsten-producing Countries (Updated 2023) (investingnews.com)

For ease of reading I have summarised the 8 ranked countries below, with their Metric Tonnes produced plus my own comment

The EQR BFS announced back in Dec 2021 estimated Metric tonnage production at Mt Carbine for the financial year ended 30/6/2024 as 5044 tonnes (MT) and for 30./6/2025 as 8008.
Clearly these numbers were out well before the last BFS revision and we are also even now awaiting a 2nd BFS revision, so the above MT's of 5044 and 8008 could prove to be still very conservative

Regardless, clearly these numbers would put Australia in 2nd place and this will be because of the Mt Carbine Resource and then the Dolphin Resource once it gets up and running - needless to say the Mt Carbine resource can achieve 2nd place on its own at this stage.

US Critical Minerals sanctions legislation, currently in place but not active until 2026, will mean that the USA cannot acquire tungsten from these countries from that date, so they will have to look elsewhere - with not too many new producers coming on board, they wont have many place to look.
The USA are absolutely huge consumers of tungsten, particularly for defense purpuses, as we have seen recently with how much of their stockpiles they have depleted in their support of the Ukraine in their war with Russia.

The Nui Phao mine in tungsten has fallen off its peak production years and there has been much speculation about Masan thirst for more tungsten supplies from the western world - understanding this point should give readers a greater appreciation for the significance of the recently signed MOU.

I'm not sure what extraction and supply conditions exist in Rwanda but suffice to say that western consumers are increasingly looking at human rights in all minerals production.

Make no mistake, the world is watching EQR and its Mt Carbine resource - with a proven gravity plant already in place, June will see the extraction of material from the Andy White pit with some full on but scaled up processing going on to produce anything up to 10 tonnes per day.

I hope this is useful to you all