Tungsten.
Two prices, one metal.

Tungsten has two prices now. In Europe, a unit of APT, the processed form of tungsten the industry trades, sold for about $3,000 in early September. In China, the same unit sold for about a third of that.

That gap is the whole tungsten trade, and China opened it on purpose. It mines about 79% of the world's tungsten, and in February 2025 it started requiring export licenses for it. When the U.S.-China truce eased controls on other metals that November, tungsten stayed on the list. Western buyers suddenly had to find supply that didn't come from China, and there wasn't much. The U.S. hasn't had a working tungsten mine since 2015.

Those buyers can't just do without, because tungsten does jobs nothing else can. It's one of the densest metals there is and has the highest melting point of any of them. Most of it becomes tungsten carbide, the hard material in cutting tools and drill bits. The rest goes into armor-piercing ammunition, electronics, and anything that has to survive extreme heat.

Investors have piled into tungsten stocks, and the best performer on this list is up almost fivefold this year. But the premium is starting to wobble. The European price slipped in August for the first time since April, China's own processing plants are running at about half capacity, and new non-China mines are starting up at exactly the wrong moment.

So tungsten stocks in 2027 are a bet on how much of the Western premium each company can lock in before it narrows. From January 1, 2027, U.S. defense contractors can't use Chinese tungsten at all, which guarantees one buyer for "clean" supply. The rest of the market can still shop on price. The list is grouped by how secure each company's premium is: the producers already selling, the company Washington picked, the restarts, the developers, and the buyer on the other side.

These companies are already selling tungsten into a market that pays three times China's price.

Almonty Industries NASDAQ: ALM

Almonty Industries built the Sangdong mine in South Korea, the largest new tungsten mine outside China in years. It was declared commercially operational in September, and its first concentrate is ready to ship. A second phase, approved this year, would expand it substantially, with completion targeted for 2027.

The reason to own it is the contract. Almonty has sold about 90% of the first phase's output to Global Tungsten & Powders, a U.S. processor, under an agreement that now runs 21 years. That's a premium locked in for longer than any price spike is likely to last. It also has $1.2 billion Canadian in cash after an $800 million convertible bond, and it's buying back stock.

EQ Resources ASX: EQR

EQ Resources runs two producing mines, Mt Carbine in Queensland and Barruecopardo in Spain. In August it booked a record A$55 million of revenue in one month, more than half of what it made in the whole previous fiscal year.

That's what selling into a hot market looks like, and it's why the stock is up almost fivefold this year. Andrew Forrest is buying a 16.8% stake, and EQR has signed onto a U.S. processing joint venture with a long-term offtake. It's the most direct way on this list to ride the tungsten price, in both directions.

Group 6 Metals ASX: G6M

Group 6 Metals owns the Dolphin mine on King Island, Tasmania. Its shares were suspended for months and returned to trading at the end of July. It made A$129 million of revenue in the year to June and has moved from open-pit to underground mining, where the ore is richer. It's a smaller, messier producer, but it's producing.

Masan High-Tech Materials UPCoM: MSR

Masan High-Tech Materials runs Nui Phao in Vietnam, one of the largest tungsten operations outside China, and processes much of its own output. In September, Elmet agreed to buy about 5% of it and signed an eight-year deal to buy about 1,250 tonnes a year for the U.S. market, worth about $1.5 billion.

That turns a Vietnamese mine into part of the American defense supply chain. Masan's shares trade thinly on Vietnam's secondary exchange, and it plans to move to the main board.

Elmet Group NASDAQ: ELMT

Elmet Group makes tungsten and molybdenum products in Maine and went public in April. In September, the Pentagon invested $450 million in it, and the Defense Logistics Agency signed it up to supply the national stockpile: at least $150 million over the base term, and up to about $2 billion at the government's option.

Elmet has since used that money to buy into Masan, back the Springer restart in Nevada and set up a U.S. processing joint venture. It's become the hub of America's non-Chinese tungsten supply chain, and the government is its anchor customer. That's the most secure premium on this list.

Reopening an old mine is the fastest way to add non-China supply. These three companies are racing to do it.

Tungsten West AIM: TUN

Tungsten West owns Hemerdon in Devon, England, one of the largest tungsten deposits in the West, which shut down under a previous owner in 2018. In August, Britain's National Wealth Fund put up about £71 million in equity and loans to bring it back.

Part of the plant restarted in August, and full production is planned for the first quarter of 2027. The stock has nearly quadrupled this year, so investors are already paying for a smooth restart. Hemerdon's last run ended badly, which is the risk.

Blue Moon Metals NASDAQ: BMM

Blue Moon Metals is restarting the old Springer mine and mill in Nevada, targeting late 2027, with a processing plant to follow in 2028. It secured its construction permits in August, and in September it joined the Elmet-led funding package backed by the Pentagon's investment.

If it starts on time, Springer would be the first working tungsten mine in the U.S. in more than a decade. A short-seller attacked the company in August, and it pushed back. This is an execution bet with government money behind it.

Allied Critical Metals CSE: ACM

Allied Critical Metals is building a small pilot plant at Vila Verde in northern Portugal, aiming for first concentrate by the end of 2026, with the larger Borralha project behind it. It's a microcap with plenty of execution risk.

What makes it interesting is the floor. It has sold half its pilot output under a contract with a minimum price of $1,000 per unit for 2026. That's about where China's price sits, which means Allied gets paid even if the Western premium disappears.

These are years from production, so as tungsten stocks they're bets on the premium lasting.

Guardian Metal Resources NYSE American: GMTL

Guardian Metal Resources is developing Pilot Mountain in Nevada. Its June prefeasibility study put the build cost at about $289 million with strong returns at current prices, and it has a $6.2 million Defense Production Act award. It listed in New York in March, raising about $68 million. The stock is down about a third since, a reminder that a study at today's prices is only as good as tomorrow's price.

Fireweed Metals TSXV: FWZ

Fireweed Metals owns Mactung on the Yukon–Northwest Territories border, one of the highest-grade large tungsten deposits in the world. It's remote and expensive to build. It has U.S. Defense Production Act funding, Canadian government support and investment from Japan's JX Advanced Metals and the Lundin mining family, and an updated feasibility study is due early next year. Mactung is a long-dated option on the West deciding it needs its own tungsten for good.

Kennametal NYSE: KMT

Kennametal makes tungsten carbide cutting tools and wear parts, and it's one of the biggest buyers of tungsten in the West. It also recycles used carbide, which is one of its best defenses against high prices.

It's here because it decides how long the premium lasts. Every quarter that tungsten costs three times more in Europe than in China, toolmakers like Kennametal face Chinese competitors with a huge raw-material advantage. Watch whether Kennametal and its peers keep paying up for clean supply or quietly push for cheaper sources. Their answer sets the price the miners above can actually get.

In 2027, a tungsten contract will be worth more than a tungsten mine.

The defense ban that starts January 1 creates a permanent, protected market for non-Chinese tungsten. But defense is a small slice of tungsten demand. Most of it goes into cutting tools, and toolmakers compete with Chinese rivals that pay a third as much for their metal. As new mines come online, the spot premium will drift toward whatever the protected buyers will pay.

That's why the strongest positions among these tungsten stocks aren't the biggest deposits. They're the long contracts: Almonty's 21-year offtake, Elmet's stockpile deal with the Pentagon, Allied's price floor. When the spot price gives back some of its gains, the companies that sold forward at today's prices will look smart, and the ones selling into the spot market will find out how much of the premium was temporary.