Tungsten Mining Companies in the USA: Stocks Compared

Tungsten mining companies in the USA: none are producing yet

No company mines tungsten commercially in the United States. The US Geological Survey (USGS) says there has been no commercial tungsten mine output since 2015, and it counts seven US firms that turn imported concentrate, ammonium paratungstate (APT), oxide or scrap into powder and chemicals (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, February 2026). So the real list has three parts: companies building US mines (Guardian Metal Resources, Almonty Industries and American Tungsten), a Canadian project that the US government helps fund (Fireweed Metals), and US makers that buy tungsten (Kennametal, Global Tungsten & Powders and Buffalo Tungsten).

This page compares them on facts you can check: ticker, US asset, stage, the latest figure from the company’s own filing, and what is still unproven. It is written for investors, business owners and consultants who want to read the sector without the promotion. Tungsten (symbol W) is a very hard, very dense metal. Its main ore minerals are scheelite and wolframite, and its main use is cemented carbide for cutting and wear parts.

How we chose the companies

We included a company if it meets one of three tests, and we checked each against its own filings or releases dated between January and October 2026.

• It owns or has an option on a tungsten project in the United States. This gives three names: Guardian Metal (Nevada), Almonty (Montana) and American Tungsten (Idaho).
• It is a listed developer with a US government link. Fireweed is included because its Mactung project in Yukon, Canada, received a US Defense Production Act award, but Mactung is not a US mine.
• It makes tungsten products in the US. These firms matter because they are the buyers any future US mine would sell to.

We left out every company that only mentions tungsten as a side project, and any firm whose US tungsten claims we could not trace to a filing. The order is not a ranking of quality. Stage is what separates these companies, so the table runs from the most advanced study to the earliest.

US tungsten mining stocks compared

The table lists listed developers first, then the Canadian project, then makers. No share prices are shown, because they change daily and this page does not give investment advice. Tickers are as stated in each company’s filings or releases in 2026.

WO₃ means tungsten trioxide, the unit in which tungsten ore and concentrate are priced. A resource is a mineral estimate with reasonable prospects of extraction. A reserve is the part shown by a study to be economic. Indicated and inferred describe how well the resource is known, with inferred being the least certain.

Profiles of the US tungsten developers

Guardian Metal Resources: the most advanced US project

Guardian Metal owns the Pilot Mountain project in Nevada and holds an option to buy 100% of the nearby Tempiute project. Its pre-feasibility study (PFS) for Pilot Mountain describes about 15,916 t of WO₃ over an eight-year mine life, with an after-tax net present value of US$660.3 million at an 8% discount rate and an internal rate of return of 59.6%. Those results rest on a base-case price of US$197,300 per tonne of WO₃ (Guardian Metal annual report, year to 30 June 2026). That is about US$1,973 per metric ton unit (mtu), far above the 2025 average in the USGS table below, so the study is sensitive to the price staying high.

The same report says 97% of the Indicated resource converted to 11.8 million tonnes of Probable Reserves holding 20,275 t of WO₃. The US Department of War invested US$6.2 million in Guardian’s US subsidiary under Defense Production Act Title III in July 2025, and the company listed on the NYSE American in March 2026 with gross proceeds of about US$68.3 million. A PFS is not a feasibility study: permits, financing and construction decisions all come later.

Almonty Industries: producing abroad, evaluating in Montana

Almonty moved its head office from Toronto to Dillon, Montana, in April 2026 and trades on Nasdaq as ALM (Almonty management discussion, 2026). Its producing mine is Panasqueira in Portugal. Its Sangdong mine in South Korea made its first concentrate in September 2026, and the company says Phase II is under way, targeting completion in 2027 (Almonty shareholder letter, 29 September 2026). Its Los Santos mine in Spain is on care and maintenance.

The US asset is the Gentung Browns Lake project in Beaverhead County, Montana, bought in November 2025. The company quoted 7.53 Mt at 0.315% WO₃ from a technical report with an effective date of February 2012 and targeted production readiness in the second half of 2026 (Almonty release, 17 November 2025). Its 2026 filing still describes the claims as under evaluation, so treat Gentung as a project with an old resource estimate, not as a producer.

American Tungsten: a past-producing Idaho mine

American Tungsten holds an option to buy 100% of the IMA Mine, a past-producing underground mine on 22 patented claims in Lemhi County, Idaho. The property made about 199,449 mtu of WO₃ between 1945 and 1957 (American Tungsten release, 13 January 2026). The company reports 316,000 t of indicated and 2.18 Mt of inferred resource at 0.55% WO₃, and filed an updated technical report on 5 October 2026 (American Tungsten). It is an exploration company: it has no feasibility study and no mine permit for restart in the sources we read.

Fireweed Metals: US money, Canadian mine

Fireweed’s Mactung deposit in Yukon is often grouped with US plays because the US Department of Defense awarded the company US$15.8 million under Title III of the Defense Production Act (US Department of War release). The 2023 resource is 41.5 Mt indicated at 0.73% WO₃ and 12.2 Mt inferred at 0.59% (Fireweed Metals, Mactung project page). For the full Canadian picture, see our guide to tungsten in Canada.

Tungsten manufacturers in the USA

US tungsten manufacturing runs on imported feed and scrap. About 60% of US tungsten use goes into cemented carbide for cutting and wear parts, mainly for construction, metalworking, mining and drilling (USGS, 2026). Three names appear in most searches.

• Kennametal (NYSE: KMT), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Its 10-K for the year to 30 June 2026 reports sales of US$2,356.7 million, up 20% on the year, and says export restrictions have contributed to higher tungsten prices that may keep raising its raw material costs. It also runs an internal tungsten recycling operation (Kennametal 10-K, fiscal 2026).
• Global Tungsten & Powders (GTP), Towanda, Pennsylvania. It supplies tungsten, tungsten carbide and cobalt powders from plants in the US, Finland and Luxembourg (GTP).
• Buffalo Tungsten, Depew, New York. Sandvik completed its purchase in December 2023; the plant makes tungsten metal powder and tungsten carbide powder (Sandvik release, 4 December 2023).

Kennametal is a user and maker, not a miner. Owning its shares gives exposure to tungsten costs and tool demand, which is a different bet from owning a developer.

Why the US still has no tungsten mine

The US depends on imports. USGS lists 2021 to 2024 import sources as China 26%, Germany 14%, Bolivia 8% and Vietnam 8%, and puts net import reliance above 50% of apparent consumption in every year from 2021 to 2025 (USGS, 2026). China produced an estimated 67,000 t of the world’s 85,000 t of tungsten in 2025. The US figure is zero.

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Estimated tungsten mine output, selected producers, 2025

Metric tons of tungsten content; the United States produced none

Three things make a new US mine hard to open: ore must be proven in a bankable study, permits and financing must be secured, and prices swing widely. Tungsten is an official critical mineral, on the 2025 final US list (IEA policy database), which helps with policy attention but does not by itself fund a mine. The USGS notes that Defense Production Act awards went to projects in Nevada, New Brunswick and Yukon in 2025.

Tungsten price and what a tonne of concentrate is worth

Tungsten prices rose sharply in 2025 after China added export controls on some tungsten items in February 2025 and the US raised tariffs on several Chinese tungsten products to 50% at the end of 2024. USGS reports that Rotterdam prices rose from US$266 to US$551 per mtu for 65% concentrate over 2025, and that the 2025 average was US$380, against US$252 in 2024.

Chart

Rotterdam tungsten concentrate price, annual average

US$ per dry metric ton unit of WO3, average in-warehouse Rotterdam

The move did not stop there. Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) reports that the average domestic Chinese APT price hit a record 1,515,000 yuan per tonne on 12 March 2026 and had fallen about 67% to 500,000 yuan per tonne by 12 October 2026 (SMM, 13 October 2026). Those are Chinese APT prices in yuan, not US dollar concentrate prices, so do not compare them directly with the USGS series. The lesson for any developer study is the same: check which price it assumes and whether that price is a long-term view or a spike.

One metric ton unit (mtu) of WO₃ is 10 kg of tungsten trioxide, which contains 7.93 kg of tungsten (USGS footnote). A concentrate at 65% WO₃ therefore holds 65 mtu per tonne. The calculator turns a lot of concentrate into value at a price you type in.

How the project grades compare

Grade is the share of WO₃ in the rock. Higher grade usually lowers the cost of each unit produced, but tonnage, depth, metallurgy and permits matter just as much. The headline grades below come from different sources and different resource categories, so use them to see scale, not to rank value. Gentung’s figure dates from a 2012 report.

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Headline resource grade at three North American projects

Percent WO3; different resource categories and report dates

What the US trade figures show

With no mine, US trade tells the story. USGS reports imports of tungsten ores and concentrates of 1,700 t in 2025 (estimate) and imports of other forms, such as powders, oxides and scrap, of 10,000 t. Exports of other forms were 3,300 t. The US sends out far less than it brings in, and the import line rose in 2025 while exports fell slightly.

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US tungsten trade, 2024 against 2025

Metric tons; ores and concentrates, and other forms (powders, oxides, scrap)

Policy: defense purchasing rules

The Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement bars defense contractors from delivering tungsten metal powder or tungsten heavy alloy that was produced in a covered country, and from 1 January 2027 the ban reaches material mined or refined there (DFARS 252.225-7052, implementing 10 U.S.C. 4872). China and Russia are among the covered countries. This rule explains why defense-linked buyers look for non-Chinese concentrate, and why developers stress US-linked supply. A proposed bill in Congress would delay it; we did not find that it had passed, so check the regulation text before relying on the date.

What to check before you read a tungsten stock story

Most weak claims in this sector fail on a short list of tests. Use these before you trust any headline.

1. Which stage is the project at? Exploration, PFS, feasibility study, permit, construction and production are separate steps. Guardian is at PFS; American Tungsten is drilling; Almonty’s Montana project is under evaluation.
2. Which resource category is quoted? Inferred tonnes are the least certain. Look for reserves, which need a study.
3. How old is the resource? Gentung’s quoted estimate dates from February 2012.
4. What price does the study assume? Compare it with the market price and with USGS averages.
5. Who will buy it? An offtake agreement or a US processor makes the plan more credible than a general statement.
6. How is it funded? A government award helps, but US$6.2 million does not build a mine.

Nothing on this page predicts the price of a share or of tungsten.

How satellite data helps screen tungsten ground

Tungsten ore in skarn and vein systems often sits with altered rock, iron staining and structures that multispectral satellites can map. This works as a first filter for licence owners and consultants who want to choose where to spend on mapping and drilling. It does not replace sampling or a resource estimate. For related reading, see our notes on Idaho mineral districts and satellite data and Nevada’s Walker Lane geology and permits.

Farmonaut is a US-based company that turns a licence boundary into a satellite mineral screen, with results in 5 to 20 business days and input as a KML, KMZ or polygon. See the satellite mineral detection service, send a project through the mining query form, or use contact us for a quote. Satellite results are exploration targets and sit ahead of any resource estimate.

▶ Remote sensing for mining in three minutes: the instrument types and why agreement between them matters. · 2:01

Frequently asked questions

Which companies are mining tungsten in the USA?

None. USGS reports no commercial US tungsten mine production since 2015. Guardian Metal, Almonty and American Tungsten are working on US projects, but none was producing from a US mine in the sources we read.

What are the best US tungsten stocks?

This page does not rate stocks. It lists facts: Guardian Metal (NYSE American: GMTL) is furthest along with a PFS, American Tungsten (TSX-V: TUNG) is drilling, and Almonty (Nasdaq: ALM) produces abroad. Read each company’s filings and speak to a licensed adviser.

Is there a tungsten mining stocks list I can follow?

The table above is a start. Add any firm only after you confirm its project, stage and listing in its own filings, and its latest resource date.

Who are the tungsten manufacturers in the USA?

Kennametal, Global Tungsten & Powders and Buffalo Tungsten are the best known. USGS counts seven US companies able to convert concentrate, APT, oxide or scrap to powder or chemicals.

Where are US tungsten mines located?

Projects sit in Nevada (Pilot Mountain, Tempiute), Idaho (IMA Mine) and Montana (Gentung Browns Lake). Historic output came from mines such as IMA, which produced from 1945 to 1957.

Why is tungsten a critical mineral?

It is on the 2025 US critical minerals list. Cemented carbide tools, wear parts and heavy alloys depend on it, and China produces most of the world supply.

How much tungsten does the world mine each year?

USGS estimates 85,000 t in 2025, of which China accounts for 67,000 t.

What is a metric ton unit?

An mtu of WO₃ is 10 kg of tungsten trioxide. Concentrate is priced per mtu, so a tonne at 65% WO₃ holds 65 mtu.

Will the defense rule raise demand for US tungsten?

It limits defense purchases of material mined or refined in covered countries from 1 January 2027, which supports demand for non-Chinese supply. How much of that reaches US mines depends on permits and financing.

Is this investment advice?

No. The page lists reported facts and does not tell you to buy or sell any share.

▶ A short look at Farmonaut Mining Pro, which turns a licence boundary into a geological and economic picture. · 4:56