Almonty's Sangdong Mill Hits Stride as First Tungsten Cargo Is Slated for October 24
Published on 10/09/2026 at 14:40 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Almonty Industries shares advanced 3.8% on Friday to EUR 10.71, recovering part of the prior session's decline, when the stock closed at EUR 10.32 on Thursday — a 4.4% drop. No company-specific catalyst was cited for either move, leaving the market to weigh a softer tungsten price against the steady drumbeat of operational news out of South Korea.
APT Retreat Reframes the Earnings Picture
The pullback in ammonium parawolframate (APT) has become the dominant narrative for the sector. According to media reports, the price of the key tungsten benchmark slid from USD 3,050 to roughly USD 2,700 per metric tonne unit — a correction of more than 10% that lands squarely on the revenue expectations of any producer. For a miner still in its ramp-up phase, that shift forces investors to reprice future margins almost immediately.
The scale of the reset is visible in the share chart: Almonty trades about 50% below its 52-week high. That gap illustrates how quickly the market withdraws the benefit of the doubt when the underlying commodity turns, and it explains why Thursday's weakness looked more like a reassessment of the market environment than a verdict on management.
Sangdong's Hardest Phase Is Now Behind It
Operationally, the picture is markedly different. Chief Executive Lewis Black told investors at the 20th International Investment Forum that the company has cleared the most difficult stretch of the development phase at its South Korean Sangdong mine and completed the transition into production. His message came with a caveat: what will ultimately determine Almonty's valuation is not how well the company markets its projects, but how reliably it executes on the ground.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Almonty?
The tungsten concentrate start-up at Sangdong took place roughly two weeks ago, with the first export-bound bags of concentrate now filled. The processing plant at the site runs on a schedule of 13 hours a day, seven days a week, while work on Phase II development is already under way.
The near-term test is a concrete one. The first shipment of tungsten concentrate is booked for October 24. Deliver that cargo on time and to specification, and Sangdong shifts definitively from a development story into an operating mine. Management had already laid out the Phase II timeline and the expansion of its tungsten supply strategy in a shareholder letter and corporate update on September 29.
Beyond South Korea, Almonty is pursuing a multi-track supply approach that spans its home market, partners in Europe, and operations in Rwanda.
Governance Cleanup Adds Institutional Weight
Two quieter developments have strengthened the company's standing behind the scenes. Effective September 29, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP was appointed as Almonty's new auditor, succeeding Zeifmans LLP. Regulatory filings indicate the change stemmed from no disagreement over accounting or the scope of the audit — and for a growing resource company, bringing in a globally recognized accounting firm is a clear boost to institutional credibility.
Almonty also closed out a legal matter. On October 2, the company announced a settlement with Pure Tungsten, publishing a clarification regarding Tiger Kim. The statement confirmed that Kim never held any position as an executive, board member, or director at Almonty, and that his work as an independent contractor for the company ended in 2015. Such disclosures are undramatic for shareholders, but they remove legal uncertainty — something that matters during a transition period.
What the October 24 Sailing Will Prove
Weighing it all up, the softer APT price is a legitimate caution flag and a check on inflated profit expectations for the early phase of mining. Yet Almonty has so far delivered in line with its announced schedule. As long as the Sangdong ramp-up holds steady and the October 24 delivery goes off as planned, the case is strong that the recent share-price softness reflects the commodity backdrop rather than problems of the company's own making.
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