Almonty's $300 Million Buyback Signals a Turning Point as Tungsten Prices Surge
Published on 08/24/2026 at 02:41 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The tungsten producer's board-approved repurchase program, covering up to 14.4 million common shares at a maximum cost of $300 million, kicks off today and can run through August 2029. That equates to roughly 5 percent of the shares outstanding — a meaningful statement from management about where it believes the stock should trade.
The timing aligns with what has been a transformative stretch for the company. Almonty has shifted from mine developer to revenue-generating operator at its Sangdong project in South Korea's Gangwon province, and the market for tungsten — essential in everything from cutting tools to defense applications — has moved sharply in its favor. European ammonium paratungstate prices have climbed to roughly $3,075 per metric ton unit from $453, a surge that has supercharged the top line.
A Balance Sheet Transformed
The financial firepower behind the buyback comes from a heavily oversubscribed convertible bond issuance in June that raised $800 million, carrying a 2.25 percent coupon and maturing in 2031. That influx helped push cash reserves to approximately C$1.23 billion as of June 30 and allowed the company to fully retire its KfW loan, a deleveraging step that has already been digested by the market. The shares have given back about 21.3 percent since that debt repayment, which arguably makes the current repurchase window more compelling.
Second-quarter results illustrate just how far the business has come. Revenue jumped 498 percent year over year to C$43.0 million, up from C$7.2 million in the prior-year period and ahead of the C$25.4 million posted in the first quarter of 2026. The bottom line swung to a net profit of C$181.8 million from a loss of C$58.2 million a year earlier, though C$173.1 million of that gain was tied to non-cash revaluation gains on derivatives and warrants. Operating cash flow for the first half reached C$31.6 million, reversing a C$14.9 million outflow in the same period last year.
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Sangdong's Ramp-Up Gains Momentum
The operational story centers on the processing facility at Sangdong, which was completed in March and began commercial processing in July. A stockpile of 139,700 tonnes of ore — enough for roughly 2.6 months of operations — has cushioned the ramp-up, and the plant is targeting a steady annual throughput of 640,000 tonnes in Phase I.
That production base now has a firmer commercial foundation. In July, Almonty expanded its long-term offtake agreement with Global Tungsten & Powders, a subsidiary of Austria's Plansee Group. The contract term was extended from 15 to 21 years, with contracted volume rising 40 percent to 4.41 million MTU. Improved pricing terms are expected to lift realized revenue per MTU by 6.3 percent and add at least $30 million annually to contract revenue at current prices. Over the full life of the agreement, that translates to roughly $490 million in sales.
A Streamlined Listing Structure
The buyback arrives amid a deliberate consolidation of the company's public market footprint. Almonty voluntarily delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange on July 31, and trading in its CHESS Depositary Interests on the Australian Securities Exchange will end August 28, with the formal delisting set for September 1. That leaves Nasdaq, where the shares trade under "ALM," and Frankfurt, under "ALI1," as the primary venues.
Management has also filed shelf registrations on August 14 covering potential equity issuances of up to roughly $246.79 million, including a component tied to an employee share participation plan — a reminder that the capital structure remains in flux even as the company returns cash to shareholders.
For investors, the picture that emerges is of a company that believes its tungsten assets are worth more than the market currently assigns them. The buyback is the most direct expression of that view, backed by a balance sheet that can fund it without crimping growth plans and an operating ramp that is now generating real revenue.
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