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Key takeaways:
With China increasing export restrictions and the United States preparing to prohibit the use of materials from adversaries in defense contracting, Washington is working to rebuild tungsten supply chains.
This effort involves cooperation between federal agencies, the Pentagon and financial markets. The main goals are to ensure a reliable supply and to accelerate progress in an industry that typically faces long delays.
This has led to an unusual alignment of public funding, defense strategy and private investment, all working together to speed up mining projects both within the country and internationally.
At the center of Washington’s offshore strategy are its development finance institutions. The Export Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which are wholly government owned financial institutions created by Congress, have emerged as key vehicles for anchoring tungsten supply outside China.
A leading example can be found with Cove Capital, a private equity firm that is developing significant tungsten projects at Northern Katpar and Upper Kairakty in Kazakhstan. EXIM and DFC have together provided most of the project’s funding —EXIM has committed about $900 million in debt financing and the DFC has confirmed $700 million.
Cove Capital chairman Pini Althaus told Fastmarkets that the US will play a significant role in the firm’s tungsten projects, extending beyond financing to involvement at the industry level. “We have been granted official US trade advocacy status by the government to support our efforts in bidding for and acquiring the project. As such, we are collaborating closely with the administration due to the project’s strategic significance.”
The structure is deliberate, recent policy developments show.
In a press release on DFC’s website, Ben Black, the CEO of the DFC said: “As the US government’s international investment arm, DFC is dedicated to working closely with the White House, interagency and Congress to ensure access to these key resources and safeguard America’s economic growth and security.”
Australia has followed a similar approach. EQ Resources secured an EXIM letter of interest detailing a possible $34 million, 10-year debt facility to expand the historic Mt Carbine tungsten mine. This arrangement is part of the Supply Chain Resiliency Initiative (SCRI), designed to diversify and reinforce US supply chains and minimize reliance on China by utilizing EXIM financing linked to US import offtake agreements.
“EXIM shows great commitment to the business and underlines the importance of us to the supply chain and to the US and Europe,” Jono Kort, the CFO of EQ Resources said in a market update webinar for investors in November 2025.
“We are continuing to actively engage with the EXIM and the Department of Defense (DoD) for the grant to get it completed as soon as possible,” he added.
Similarly, under SCRI, UK-based Tungsten West has received a non binding EXIM letter of interest of up to $95 million, with a repayment tenor of up to 15 years, for restarting the Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine in Devon.
The EXIM also noted that the Hemerdon project could align with its China and Transformational Exports Program, which is designed to counter export support from China and other countries and strengthen US competitiveness.
Based on this framework, the project could be eligible for EXIM financing linked to long term offtake sales to US buyers. Jeff Court, CEO of Tungsten West said in a statement that Hemerdon could supply about 20% of global primary tungsten output outside China once operational.
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In Africa, the DFC has assumed a more nuanced yet strategically aligned role.
In 2024, Trinity Metals, operator of the Nyakabingo mine in Rwanda, received approximately $3.9 million in technical assistance funding from the DFC. This funding was specifically allocated to support environmental, social and governance (ESG) programs rather than mine construction, making Nyakabingo the first operating mine in Africa to obtain such technical assistance from the DFC for ESG initiatives across its operations.
Trinity Metals has since executed offtake arrangements with US processor Global Tungsten & Powders, with the first shipments of tungsten concentrate from Rwanda to Pennsylvania in September 2025.
Through large-scale debt funding, letters of interest and targeted support within initiatives such as the SCRI and the China and Transformational Exports Program, the US government is strategically employing the EXIM and DFC — two main financial institutions — to establish a global tungsten investment network.
This approach combines state-backed financing with long-term offtake agreements to US buyers, thereby anchoring mining projects across regions including Central Asia, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa.
If government banks are underwriting supply overseas, the DoD is rebuilding tungsten capacity inside the US.
Under Title III of the Defense Production Act (DPA) — a Cold War era law that allows the US government to invest directly in domestic industrial capacity deemed critical to national security — the DoD awarded $6.2 million to Guardian Metal Resources in July 2025 to accelerate a prefeasibility study at its Pilot Mountain tungsten project in Nevada.
The company is using that money to fast track its Pre Feasibility Study (PFS). On March 20, the company announced its listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol GMTL.
J.T. Starzecki, chairman of Guardian Metals, said in January that the company has attracted strong investor interest, driven by tungsten’s strategic importance and opportunities for exposure to the sector.
The company’s goal is to deliver two mines before US President Donald Trump leaves office in January 2029.
Starzecki said the company is closely tracking the Defense Logistics Agency’s (DLA) stockpile plans and has been keeping relevant officials informed through regular briefings, remaining actively engaged in the process with support from representatives in Washington.
The DPA Purchases Office, operated by the DoD, serves as the primary entity responsible for allocating Title III funding. Guardian Metal Resources was among several companies awarded funds by the office.
In December 2024, the DPA Purchases Office awarded $15.8 million to Fireweed Metals to advance development of the Mactung tungsten project in Canada’s Yukon territory, highlighting the integration of Canadian resources into the US defense industrial base.
The grant is designated for resource definition, metallurgical testing and feasibility studies.
Beyond tungsten, 2025 DPA awards also cover antimony, gallium, scandium, rare earths and rocket motor materials, reflecting the Pentagon’s broader effort to rebuild defense critical supply chains.
Collectively, the 2025 awards illustrate how the Pentagon’s DPA Purchases Office is strategically utilizing targeted, non-dilutive funding to mitigate risk in early-stage initiatives, expedite feasibility studies and restore processing and manufacturing capabilities for a variety of defense-critical minerals, including tungsten, antimony, gallium, scandium, rare earths and energetics.
Through the DLA, the DoD is rebuilding strategic reserves of materials vital to weapons systems and advanced manufacturing, actively working to replenish stockpiles as part of a comprehensive strategy to secure supply chains from extraction through to final defense applications.
In the private sector, public and private capital is returning to a sector long sidelined, following recent policy developments.
Almonty Industries, listed on Nasdaq, is spearheading the revival of South Korea’s Sangdong mine, which is expected to become the largest tungsten mine outside China.
The refurbishment of the Sangdong mine has been financed through a $75 million loan provided by KfW, Germany’s state development bank. In an interview with Fastmarkets in February, Almonty CEO Lewis Black said the company expects to book revenue from the mine in the first half of 2026.
Although Almonty has not received direct funding from US government programs, its strategy aligns closely with Washington’s agenda in the critical minerals sector.
In a recent public address in April, Black said: “For the next 24 months, I am willing to help my competitors succeed in the US. This is simple self-interest, not a goodwill gesture. Without more tungsten mines producing soon, the market will fail and none of us will have anyone to sell to.”
In the private capital sector, American Tungsten, a Canadian exploration company, completed a C$40 million bought deal private placement in March 2026. The financing will be used to advance exploration and development at the company’s IMA Mine tungsten project in Idaho.
According to its CEO Ali Haji, the company has identified 220,000 tons at a grade of 0.25 (0.25 tonnes of WO3 per 100 tonnes of ore), compared with the current global production average of 0.2.
“Having 220,000 tons available at this grade presents a strong opportunity to expedite production. We intend to begin producing concentrate from these tailings before year-end,” he said at the 2026 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada in March.
The financing surge marks a structural shift in how governments approach minerals, Fastmarkets understands.
This new policy direction has begun to shorten timelines by integrating capital, demand and permitting processes under a unified approach in Washington. US policymakers are using EXIM and the DFC to back major overseas supply projects with long-term debt and letters of interest linked to American purchasing agreements.
Simultaneously, the Pentagon has leveraged the DPA to reduce risks for early-stage domestic projects, advancing feasibility studies and restoring processing capacity within the country.
Government bodies like the DLA have helped to signal future demand by rebuilding strategic reserves, which supports projects from mining to final use.
This coordinated strategy aims to align finance, industrial policy and national security goals, with the intention of supporting faster development, improved project financing and quicker progress on critical minerals projects compared with market-only approaches.
That alignment is also evident beyond financing, particularly in permitting.
Guardian’s chief executive Oliver Friesen said in January that the most consequential shift has been tighter coordination across government agencies. Traditionally, mine permitting requires input from multiple departments at the state and federal level, a process that often stretches timelines.
Now, Friesen said, agencies are “speaking to each other” and aligning internally to ensure approvals can move forward more quickly. That coordination, he added, underpins the company’s confidence not just in the asset base but in timing, reflecting a government that is increasingly willing to stand behind domestic mining as a strategic priority.
The shift is also being noticed by market participants outside the US.
At Fastmarkets’ Asia Ferroalloys conference in March, Andreas Keller, chief executive of Scandinavian Steel AB, told Fastmarkets that the pace of licensing and approvals in the US metals sector has picked up markedly as capital returns to mining.
“You get the license much quicker; you can open a mine,” Keller said, adding that permitting timelines have been shortened significantly.
He mentioned that this shift is encouraging investment that previously avoided mining for many years, as private equity and risk capital were drawn to technology and artificial intelligence, sectors perceived as more appealing.
With mining projects historically taking seven to eight years to reach production, Keller said investors are now reassessing the sector as governments move to reduce regulatory friction.
“We are sort of waking up,” he said, “even if later than it should have.”
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