Market sentiment has shifted sharply in recent weeks: what began as profit-taking has developed into a real stress test for investors’ nerves. The sectors most celebrated in recent months – AI stocks and precious metals – have taken a beating. Yet amid this turmoil, one phenomenon is emerging that should make investors sit up and take notice: the tungsten market is completely decoupled from the crash and, seemingly immune to Wall Street panic, is hitting new highs. Tungsten, the indispensable backbone of Western defense and heavy industry, is becoming more expensive while almost everything else is falling. In this environment, Almonty Industries is emerging as a quasi-monopolist with excellent prospects to deliver long-term gains for its shareholders.
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The anatomy of the sell-off: AMD and First Majestic in turmoil
To truly appreciate Almonty’s extraordinary stability, one must understand the chaos among investor favorites. AMD, one of the big winners of the AI boom, has recently taken a significant hit. After an impressive rally of over 77% in 2025, the stock corrected by double digits at the end of January. Fundamentally, little has changed, as the hunger for computing power remains unbroken, but the market is pricing in concerns that the massive investments made by tech giants may not provide any new impetus in the short term. For long-term investors, this is more of a pause for breath in a supercycle than a swan song, but the volatility shows how seriously many investors are taking the situation surrounding AI.
The situation was even more dramatic for silver. Last Friday, investors witnessed a historic price slump, with the price of silver plummeting by USD 30 in a single session, while gold also fell by nearly USD 500. However, analysts attribute this crash not to a sudden glut of physical metal but to excesses in the paper market. As reported in forums, there were at times 377 paper claims in the form of futures and derivatives for every physically existing ounce. When margin calls began, positions had to be forcibly liquidated. This is bitter for First Majestic Silver, but it does not change the strategic foresight of the recent Gatos Silver acquisition. The structural deficit in the silver market will remain once the smoke of speculation has cleared, but until then, the precious metals market is likely to remain volatile.
Tungsten: The rock in the surf beyond speculation
While silver traders lick their wounds and tech investors eye the next quarterly figures, tungsten producers such as Almonty Industries are delighted with market prices. According to current market data, the price of ammonium paratungstate (APT) – the global benchmark product for the tungsten market – reached an average level of USD 1,249 per mtu on Friday. This is no coincidence, nor is it a short-term outlier. Unlike precious metals, tungsten is rarely traded on speculative paper markets. There are no ETFs to artificially drive or depress the price, and no high-frequency algorithms to react to news headlines.
The price of tungsten is dictated solely by physical availability. And this is scarce, alarmingly scarce even. With China, the dominant market leader, imposing export controls and the Western arms industry running at full speed, real demand dictates the price. Armor-piercing ammunition, tool steel for machining, and, in the future, heat shields for fusion energy all require tungsten. In most cases, there is no substitute. The tungsten market is therefore authentic, unlike precious metal markets, which have long since ceased to be so due to the multitude of derivatives.
Almonty Industries: Security through strategic market power
This is precisely where Almonty Industries’ (TSX:AII) (NASDAQ:ALM) economic moat lies. The company is not at the mercy of algorithms, but is the owner of the most strategically important tungsten mine in the Western world: Sangdong in South Korea. In an environment where the APT price is steadily climbing from USD 330 at the beginning of 2025 towards USD 1,250 and beyond, prices directly leverage Almonty’s operating margin without management having to lift a finger. Every dollar increase in the APT price flows almost unfiltered into cash flow, as the mine’s cost base is largely fixed. The next tungsten mine to go into production in the global West also belongs to Almonty – with the Gentung Browns Lake project in the US state of Montana. The first US mine in many years is set to begin mining by the end of the year.
Thanks to this starting position, Almonty is virtually unrivalled and structurally reminiscent of market leaders such as Amazon or Nike. While AMD has to compete fiercely with NVIDIA and Intel, and First Majestic is dependent on the price of silver, which it cannot control, Almonty sits on an asset that Western governments must secure at all costs. The Sangdong mine contains ores with grades and volumes that are unmatched outside of China’s sphere of influence.
The geopolitical factor: Why USD 1,249 is just the beginning
Investors need to understand that the current price of USD 1,249 is likely just the beginning of a long-term revaluation. The geopolitical fragmentation of the global economy plays directly into Almonty’s hands. Governments in Washington, Brussels, and Seoul have recognized that security of supply is more important than the cheapest price. Almonty offers precisely this security: tungsten from a democratic, stable jurisdiction, mined according to the highest ESG standards. Almonty benefits twice over. If the global economy booms, industry needs tungsten for tools and machinery. If the global economy enters a crisis and geopolitical tensions increase, the defense sector needs tungsten for military equipment. This makes Almonty one of the few stocks that is fundamentally supported in both scenarios.
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