Almonty’s Sangdong Serves Two Masters: Chipmakers Starved of WF? and Index Funds Chasing Molybdenum
20.06.2026 - 16:56:39 | boerse-global.de
The semiconductor industry rarely thinks about the metal inside its chips until the supply chain seizes up. That moment arrived last week when two Japanese chemical giants — Kanto Denka and Central Glass — told key customers they will halt production of tungsten hexafluoride (WF?) from July 1, 2026. Together they account for roughly a quarter of global WF? capacity, a gas so pure it must hit 99.999% quality and takes 18 to 24 months to certify from a new source. TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix now face a looming shortage of a material essential for 3D NAND, HBM and advanced logic chips. There is no quick fix.
The WF? crisis is the downstream symptom of a deeper squeeze. China’s export licensing regime for tungsten, introduced in February 2025, has all but severed the flow of raw material. APT exports collapsed to near zero last year, the tungsten price surged more than 160% in 2025 and WF? itself rose over 200% year-on-year. Japan’s access to high-purity tungsten powder has been cut off, forcing those two producers to shut down. Against that backdrop, Almonty Industries is no longer a niche story. It is the largest Western-oriented tungsten producer and the only US-based miner currently in production, with the Sangdong mine in South Korea poised to become a pillar of China-free supply.
Just as the WF? news landed, Almonty received another structurally significant catalyst. Starting June 29, the company will join the Russell 1000 and Russell 3000 indices. With roughly $12.2 trillion in assets benchmarked to Russell indexes, passive funds must mechanically buy the stock — regardless of market sentiment. The inclusion follows Almonty’s operational progress and its relocation of headquarters to the US. The first-quarter 2026 numbers give index managers ample justification: revenue jumped 221% to $25.4 million, operating cash flow flipped from minus $4.4 million to plus $9.7 million, and net loss shrank to $5.3 million from $34.6 million a year earlier. Cash on hand stood at $259.9 million at the end of March.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Almonty?
The Sangdong mine itself is already running Phase 1, processing around 640,000 tonnes of ore annually. Plans for a Phase 2 expansion, which would double capacity to 1.2 million tonnes, target 2027 start-up. Tungsten prices have held above $3,000 per MTU since mid-April, providing a tailwind that helped Almonty swing to positive EBITDA and cash flow in Q1. The stock has climbed 121.70% year-to-date and roughly 461% from the July 2025 trough — a rally grounded in a sequence of verifiable operational and geopolitical events, not hype.
But Sangdong holds another metal with its own supply crunch. On June 16, Almonty reported that drilling at the adjacent molybdenum project in Gangwon province is 37% complete, with 26 planned holes covering 12,000 metres. Assay results so far match historical grades, reinforcing confidence in the deposit’s size. The timing is acute: South Korea’s national molybdenum reserves have fallen to critically low levels, prompting the government to issue public notices urging private companies to secure their own supply. Molybdenum’s spot price has risen 23.5% year-on-year to CNY 592.34 per kilogram. The metal is increasingly used in semiconductors and renewable energy, in addition to its traditional roles in aerospace, defence and petrochemicals.
Almonty’s stock has been digesting its earlier sprint. After hitting a 52-week high of CAD 33.35 in April, it corrected roughly 20% and now trades at CAD 26.67, just below the 50-day moving average of CAD 27.21. The 200-day average sits at CAD 17.59, meaning the shares are about 51.6% above it — a reminder of how powerfully the fundamental re-rating has reshaped the valuation. The relative strength index stands at 53, signalling neither overbought nor exhausted momentum. The market is consolidating, not fleeing.
With a market capitalisation of €4.63 billion, Almonty is no longer cheap by conventional metrics. What investors are pricing in is a world where the tungsten inside every AI chip can no longer come from China, and where Almonty controls the most significant alternative deposit outside the country. The Russell listing and the molybdenum drilling results, expected in coming weeks, provide two near-term events that could broaden the investor base further. Whether the premium is justified will be decided not on a trading screen, but deep underground in South Korea, where two critical metals are being unearthed to serve the twin emergencies of chip fabrication and strategic mineral independence.
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