Tungsten has become a critically important raw material on the global market, with its price rising severalfold after China introduced export restrictions. Russia, which has significant reserves, currently mines little but intends to substantially increase volumes and form a new export market.

This metal is necessary for the defense industry, metalworking, production of hard alloys, the aerospace industry, and high technologies.

In 2025, global mining output grew by 3.7% and reached 85 thousand tons. However, in the same year, China, which controls almost 80% of the market, introduced export restrictions. This led to a reduction in global supplies by 25% and a sharp jump in prices.

According to independent industrial expert Leonid Khazanov, from January to August, tungsten trioxide cost 2.9-3.2 thousand dollars per ton, which is approximately 600% more than a year earlier. He noted that this is a clear indication of the shortage caused by the fall in Chinese supplies.

The situation is difficult to rectify due to the specifics of the market: the PRC is the main producer and processor of tungsten raw materials. In December 2025, Beijing announced that in 2026-2027 exports will be allowed only to 15 companies.

In recent years, demand for the metal has grown especially. According to analysts at Project Blue, since 2022, consumption for defense needs has increased by about a quarter.

Konstantin Kuguchin, a specialist in international trade, noted that up to 60% of the global market is accounted for by tungsten-based hard alloys, without which mining, metalworking, and construction are impossible. In conditions of militarization, demand for tungsten in the military-industrial complex exceeds a third of total consumption.

Many countries are trying to keep the metal for themselves and are increasing their own extraction and processing. For example, Britain in August invested 71 million pounds sterling in resuming the Hemerdon project. The United States restricted exports of tungsten scrap to preserve secondary raw materials. The European Union included tungsten in its list of strategic raw materials and by 2030 plans to increase its own extraction, processing, and recycling of secondary raw materials, reducing dependence on external suppliers.

Russia possesses one of the world's largest tungsten resource bases. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimates it at 400 thousand tons. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, reserves could reach one million tons of tungsten trioxide. However, last year Russia mined only about two thousand tons, while worldwide it was 85 thousand, of which 67 thousand were in China.

Khazanov explains that there are objective difficulties. Reserves are distributed among three types of deposits (skarn, vein, and stockwork), whose ores have complex mineral composition and often low metal content. This requires multi-stage and costly enrichment schemes. In addition, the deposits are located in remote areas of Siberia and the Far East with insufficiently developed infrastructure.

The Tyrnyauz deposit is the fourth in the world in terms of reserves, with its potential accounting for almost 40% of the Russian total. Konstantin Pozdnyakov, a project management specialist, noted that this former flagship of the industry has been idle for decades due to low prices, outdated equipment, and dilapidated infrastructure.

Vadim Petrov, deputy director of the Unified Scientific Center of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, listed the problems: over a decade, output of tungsten in concentrates fell by almost 40% due to deteriorating raw material quality and reduced recovery, as well as problems with roads, energy, a long investment cycle, expensive capital, technological limitations, a lack of long-term domestic orders and off-takes, sanctions and payment risks, and environmental obligations.

Nevertheless, experts believe that what was previously unprofitable is now becoming profitable. At the Tyrnyauz deposit in Kabardino-Balkaria, resumption of tungsten and molybdenum mining is scheduled for 2028. It is expected that the most significant increase is possible there. There are also the Agylkinskoye, Skrytoye, Kti-Teberdinskoye deposits and the Inkursko-Kholtosonsky node in Buryatia.

According to the forecast of the Ministry of Natural Resources, all design capacities for tungsten mining in Russia will be operational by 2030, with production volume reaching 18 thousand tons of tungsten oxide per year. In Buryatia, the potential of the Dzhidinskaya area is currently being assessed within the second stage of the federal program "Geology: Revival of the Legend". Work should be completed in December 2027.

The Kholtosonskoye, Inkurskoye tungsten deposits and the Pervomayskoye molybdenum deposit constituted the resource base of the Dzhidinsky tungsten-molybdenum plant. Specialists are determining whether there are still industrially significant deposits within the ore field.

Vadim Petrov believes that they returned to the Dzhidinsky node due to the high external price signal, tasks of resource sovereignty, federal financing of geological exploration, and potential corporate interest. Pozdnyakov adds that mining there was stopped due to depletion of reserves, but after additional exploration, a restart could become economically meaningful.

It is still far from final conclusions, but experts consider the Dzhidinskaya area promising. An important hint for geologists is the presence of granites, indicating the presence of ore zones.

Source: RIA Novosti