That’s an important question but I don’t see a urgent need for...

That’s an important question but I don’t see a urgent need for concern. I don’t believe KIS’s Dolphin Project will be a cause for China to react with forced price suppression. The mine only has a current Mineral Reserve of 4.43 Mt (megatonnes) equating to 4.08 Mmtu (Mega metric-ton-unit) according to their last announcement on NPV and Mine Life (on 16-Dec-2020).

4.08 Mmtu of Tungsten ore is equivalent to approx. 32.4 kt (kilotonnes) of contained Tungsten.

China has somewhere between half to two-thirds of the world’s tungsten reserves. Their mines produced 61 kt of contained Tungsten in 2020 (according to Roskill), accounting for over 80% of world mine output in 2020. This output alone is double the mineral reserves in the Dolphin Project.

China is also the leading producer and consumer of processed tungsten metal so much that they have become a net importer of tungsten ore. This would make it harder for them to control the price of tungsten ore/concentrate. It will definitely become a very big concern when or if they become a net exporter. However, currently we are just a small fish riding the tungsten waves driven by China and the US. If the world’s largest supplier of producer of tungsten ore is needing to import more than that’s a sign that the tungsten demand is strong.

Also working to our favour is US being the largest net importer of tungsten and their unease towards China, their largest source of tungsten. As tungsten is deemed as a critical metal by the US means that they’ll always be open to alternate sources of tungsten.

Also, important to note is that Mineral Resources (what’s in the ground) for Tungsten in King Island is more than double that of the mineral resources (what’s economically mineable). This means potential to reassess and increase mining reserves as mining technology/techniques improves becoming more economical.

Some reads and sources on the tungsten market:

https://roskill.com/market-report/tungsten/

https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2020/mcs2020-tungsten.pdf

https://oec.world/en/profile/hs92/tungsten-orehttps://www.miningnewsnorth.com/story/2019/06/01/critical-minerals/china-domination-makes-tungsten-critical/5772.html

Always DYOR