Almonty's Sangdong Ramp-Up Presses On as Market Greets Progress With a Shrug
Published on 10/08/2026 at 06:41 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Almonty Industries is doing precisely what it promised — and the market, for now, is unimpressed. Shares in the tungsten developer shed 6.8% on Wednesday to close at EUR 10.80, a retreat that neither company filings nor analyst commentary could convincingly explain. The absence of a clear trigger has left observers pointing to little more than the jittery mood that tends to shadow mining projects still finding their footing.
That the pullback came on the same day CEO Lewis Black addressed investors at the 20th International Investment Forum only sharpened the contrast. Black used the platform to walk through operational momentum at the company's flagship Sangdong mine in South Korea, where the processing circuit is running and output is being dialed up in increments every few days.
A Concrete Date on the Calendar
Having poured first tungsten roughly two weeks ago, Almonty is now steering toward its next milestone: the inaugural shipment of concentrate, booked for October 24. The date gives the market a fixed reference point after months of process fine-tuning, and it moves the company closer to routine deliveries to offtake customers.
Whether the exchange can afford to treat hard shipping dates so coolly is a fair question. Skepticism on trading desks rarely springs from facts; it feeds on uncertainty. Mine projects have a long history of slipping during process optimization, and the leap from first production to steady volumes demands patience from shareholders. A firm logistics date ought to supply clarity — yet the tape appears to be scrutinizing every headline with unusual intensity.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Almonty?
Supply Gaps, Not Demand Gaps
Black also tackled pricing at the forum. Ammonium paratungstate has been averaging around USD 2,700 per metric ton unit, down from the USD 3,050 seen earlier. Even so, he characterized the tungsten market as tight, with constrained supply — not weak demand — as the sector's defining problem.
S&P Global data back that reading. Mine supply outside China is projected at roughly 22,000 tonnes of contained WO3 for 2026, against demand in those same markets that outruns production by about 21,000 tonnes. The structural deficit beyond Chinese supply chains remains a force shaping the entire industry.
Clearing the Decks
Almonty has also been tidying up loose ends that had little to do with mining but plenty to do with distraction. On October 2, the company flagged a legal clarification: as part of a settlement, Pure Tungsten published a correction stating that Tiger Kim never held a leadership or board position at Almonty, and that his work as an independent contractor ended on December 31, 2015. Such housekeeping settles the record, though it briefly pulls attention away from the operating story.
On the commercial front, Almonty is advancing arrangements to monetize its material. A long-term supply agreement is in place with Wolfram Bergbau und Hütten AG, a Sandvik subsidiary, covering tungsten concentrate recovered from reprocessing tailings at the Los Santos mine.
The Longer Arc
The real driver, though, remains the reordering of Western supply. Almonty recently outlined Phase II development at Sangdong and stressed its long-term strategy of reliably serving Western partners with tungsten. Ramping a mine of that significance does not move to the rhythm of fast trading cycles; it follows the necessities of geology and engineering.
For all the recent consolidation, the stock still shows a gain of 36% since the start of the year. The correction says less about the business than about how nervously the market is tracking the ramp-up. October 24 now becomes the next fixed point for sector watchers: once the first cargo of concentrate leaves port, market sentiment will have to reckon with industrial reality.
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