# Where does tungsten come from?

Source: Commodity Origins, https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/tungsten/ — data JSON: https://commodityorigins.com/data/commodities/tungsten.json — license CC BY 4.0 (upstream data keeps its license; see Sources below).

Tungsten comes mainly from China, which produced 67,000 tonnes in 2025, 79% of the world's 85,000 tonnes (USGS MCS). Vietnam (3.5%), Kazakhstan (2.8%) and Russia (2.4%) follow; the top five together supply 90%. The biggest exporter of tungsten ore and concentrate (HS 261100) is Bolivia (15% of world export value in 2024, CEPII BACI). Tungsten sits in two heavy minerals, scheelite and wolframite, found in veins and skarns associated with granite intrusions, and USGS ranks China first in both reserves and resources, which is why one country dominates mining.

*A very dense metal with the highest melting point of any metal, mined from scheelite and wolframite and used in cemented carbide cutting tools, steel and electronics.* Also called: W, wolfram, scheelite, wolframite, ammonium paratungstate, APT.

## Where does tungsten come from?

| Rank | Country | Production 2025 (tonnes) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | 67,000 | 79% |
| 2 | Vietnam | 3,000 | 3.5% |
| 3 | Kazakhstan | 2,400 | 2.8% |
| 4 | Russia | 2,000 | 2.4% |
| 5 | North Korea | 2,000 | 2.4% |
| 6 | Bolivia | 1,700 | 2% |
| 7 | Rwanda | 1,300 | 1.5% |
| 8 | Australia | 1,000 | 1.2% |
| 9 | Austria | 840 | 1% |
| 10 | Spain | 800 | 0.9% |
| | Rest of world | 2,400 | 3.5% |
| | World | 85,000 | 100% |

Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, MCS 2026.

In 2025 China mined 67,000 tonnes of tungsten content, 79% of the world's 85,000 tonnes (USGS MCS). Vietnam followed with 3.5%, then Kazakhstan (2.8%), Russia (2.4%) and North Korea (2.4%). The top five account for 90% and 11 countries are credited with output. Reserves stand at 4.7 million tonnes (USGS MCS), with China holding 53%, then Australia (12%) and Russia (8.5%). USGS notes that several countries, including Bolivia and Rwanda, have no reserve estimate, and that world resources are widely spread, with significant resources on every continent except Antarctica.

Two features of the production table matter more than the ranking. First, most of the world's output comes from one country, and USGS treats its figure as an estimate that was unchanged between 2024 and 2025. Second, the rest of the table is a long tail of small mines across Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia and South America. Kazakhstan entered the ranking because USGS credits the start of production at the Boguty deposit in 2025; it reported no output there in 2024. World output changed +4% on the previous year.

The two minerals are scheelite (calcium tungstate) and wolframite (an iron and manganese tungstate). Ores are low in grade, so a mine's product is a concentrate rather than metal, and production figures are always stated as tungsten content so that concentrates of different richness can be added together.


## Who exports and imports tungsten?

Concentrate is converted to ammonium paratungstate and then to oxide and metal powder; that conversion, concentrated in China, is where the supply chain is narrower than the mining.

### Exporters of tungsten ores and concentrates (HS 261100), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bolivia | $40.6 million | 15% |
| 2 | Spain | $35.7 million | 13% |
| 3 | North Korea | $31.4 million | 11% |
| 4 | Myanmar | $29.8 million | 11% |
| 5 | Australia | $28.6 million | 10% |
| 6 | Portugal | $18.3 million | 6.7% |
| 7 | Rwanda | $18.2 million | 6.7% |
| 8 | Russia | $17.5 million | 6.4% |
| 9 | Mongolia | $7 million | 2.6% |
| 10 | Malaysia | $5.5 million | 2% |
| 11 | United States | $4.3 million | 1.6% |
| 12 | Singapore | $4.1 million | 1.5% |
| 13 | Brazil | $4 million | 1.5% |
| 14 | South Korea | $3.2 million | 1.2% |
| 15 | China | $3.1 million | 1.1% |

### Importers of tungsten ores and concentrates (HS 261100), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $134.8 million | 49% |
| 2 | United States | $40.9 million | 15% |
| 3 | Vietnam | $36.5 million | 13% |
| 4 | Austria | $33 million | 12% |
| 5 | Netherlands | $12 million | 4.4% |
| 6 | Kenya | $3.5 million | 1.3% |
| 7 | Malaysia | $3.1 million | 1.1% |
| 8 | United Kingdom | $2.7 million | 1% |
| 9 | Other Asia, nes | $1.5 million | 0.6% |
| 10 | Philippines | $1.4 million | 0.5% |
| 11 | Japan | $808,805 | 0.3% |
| 12 | Thailand | $653,125 | 0.2% |
| 13 | Germany | $577,282 | 0.2% |
| 14 | Luxembourg | $415,835 | 0.2% |
| 15 | South Korea | $356,741 | 0.1% |

### Exporters of tungsten, unwrought, including sintered bars (HS 810194), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $79.2 million | 61% |
| 2 | United States | $11.2 million | 8.6% |
| 3 | United Kingdom | $10 million | 7.7% |
| 4 | Japan | $8.1 million | 6.2% |
| 5 | Germany | $4.2 million | 3.2% |
| 6 | Singapore | $2.9 million | 2.2% |
| 7 | South Korea | $2.8 million | 2.1% |
| 8 | Canada | $2.4 million | 1.8% |
| 9 | Netherlands | $2.4 million | 1.8% |
| 10 | Hong Kong | $2 million | 1.5% |
| 11 | Other Asia, nes | $1.3 million | 1% |
| 12 | Switzerland | $951,735 | 0.7% |
| 13 | Belgium | $760,521 | 0.6% |
| 14 | Thailand | $525,885 | 0.4% |
| 15 | Italy | $422,433 | 0.3% |

### Importers of tungsten, unwrought, including sintered bars (HS 810194), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | $34.8 million | 27% |
| 2 | Other Asia, nes | $20.9 million | 16% |
| 3 | United States | $15.5 million | 12% |
| 4 | Germany | $11.4 million | 8.7% |
| 5 | India | $7.9 million | 6% |
| 6 | South Korea | $7 million | 5.4% |
| 7 | United Kingdom | $6.1 million | 4.6% |
| 8 | Australia | $5 million | 3.8% |
| 9 | Canada | $3.2 million | 2.5% |
| 10 | Vietnam | $2.7 million | 2% |
| 11 | Mexico | $1.9 million | 1.4% |
| 12 | Malaysia | $1.8 million | 1.4% |
| 13 | France | $1.5 million | 1.1% |
| 14 | Italy | $1.2 million | 0.9% |
| 15 | Hong Kong | $1 million | 0.8% |

Source: CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601).

Bolivia was the largest exporter of tungsten ore and concentrate (HS 261100) in 2024 with 15% of world export value, ahead of Spain (13%), North Korea (11%) and Myanmar (11%), on world trade of $273.2 million (CEPII BACI). China was the largest importer with 49%, ahead of the United States (15%), Vietnam (13%) and Austria (12%).

The ore table does not look like the mining table. China mines most of the world's tungsten but appears far down the exporter list of concentrate, with 1.1% of export value (China is the fifteenth entry), and it is also the largest buyer, with 49% of import value. USGS describes China as the world's leading producer, importer and consumer of tungsten concentrates. The point to take from the tables is that exporting ore, mining it and using it are three different rankings.

The second HS code shows the other end of the chain. For unwrought tungsten, including sintered bars (HS 810194), the leading exporter in 2024 was China with 61% of world export value, ahead of the United States (8.6%) and the United Kingdom (7.7%), on world trade of $130.7 million. The largest importer was Japan with 27%. Read this against the ore table and the difference is visible: the leading exporters of ore (Bolivia) and of unwrought tungsten (China) are different countries. These two customs lines also do not cover the intermediate chemicals (ammonium paratungstate and tungsten oxide), carbide powders or finished carbide tools, which have their own codes, so they do not capture the full value of processing. See [producing, exporting and processing](/learn/producing-vs-exporting-vs-processing/) for how to read such tables.


## What does tungsten cost?

### How it is priced

This page quotes no tungsten price, because there is no free public series. Tungsten has no widely used futures contract. Prices are assessed by private price reporting agencies, USGS cites Argus Tungsten Analytics for its own price series, and the assessments are sold by subscription. Publishing a number would require a license this site does not hold.

What can be said is how the market works. The unit of trade is the metric ton unit, and the way it is defined explains why quotes are hard to compare. A metric ton unit of tungsten trioxide contains 7.93 kilograms of tungsten (USGS), so a price per unit is a price per ten kilograms of contained oxide, not per tonne of material and not per tonne of tungsten metal. Concentrate and ammonium paratungstate are quoted separately, and the gap between them reflects the cost of conversion.

USGS's own price series is the average in-warehouse Rotterdam quotation, in dollars per metric ton unit, for concentrate and for ammonium paratungstate. Chinese domestic quotations, in yuan per tonne, are also published by trade media, so a buyer should check which market, grade and unit a quoted price refers to. USGS reports that Rotterdam prices rose sharply through 2025 and ties the rise to China's February 2025 export controls and to US tariff measures; this page quotes no level and describes nothing after 2025. Long-term supply contracts commonly reference the published assessments, so what a buyer pays can differ from the spot quote.


## What moves the price of tungsten?

### Chinese output and export policy

China mines most of the world's tungsten, so Chinese policy matters to the world market. In February 2025 China introduced export controls on selected tungsten items, and USGS records that China's consumption and imports of concentrate rose significantly in 2025.

### Cutting-tool and mining demand

Cemented carbide, the hard composite of tungsten carbide and cobalt, takes the largest share of tungsten, mostly in cutting and wear-resistant tools for metalworking, construction, mining and oil and gas drilling. Industrial output, vehicle and aerospace manufacturing and drilling activity therefore drive tungsten demand more than any end use of the metal itself.

### Defense demand and public stockpiling

Tungsten is dense and heat-resistant, so it appears in armor-piercing penetrators, heavy alloys and other military items. USGS reports that US Defense Production Act Title III awards went to tungsten projects in Nevada, New Brunswick and Yukon in 2025, and the US Annual Materials Plan has listed both potential acquisitions and potential disposals.

### New mines outside China

The Western supply response is slow because a mine takes years from discovery to first concentrate. USGS credits the start of production at the Boguty deposit in Kazakhstan in 2025 with part of the rise in world output, and tungsten projects in North America and Europe are in development.

### Conversion capacity in the United States

USGS counts seven US companies able to turn concentrates, ammonium paratungstate, oxide or scrap into powder, carbide powder or chemicals, while the United States has not mined tungsten commercially since 2015 and relies on imports. Where concentrate can be converted, and from whom a converter can buy it, shapes the market for non-Chinese buyers.

### Tariffs and trade measures

A US Trade Representative notice of 16 December 2024 raised the section 301 tariff to 25 percent on three tungsten subheadings from China, including unwrought tungsten (HS 810194), effective 1 January 2025. Tariffs raise the landed price of Chinese material in one market and can widen the gap between regional prices without changing physical supply.

### Recycling and substitution

Scrap carbide and tungsten-bearing scrap are an input to converters, and USGS withholds the quantity of secondary tungsten to avoid disclosing company data. Substitutes for cemented carbide exist, including molybdenum, niobium or titanium carbide, ceramics and cermets, but USGS observes that most of these reduce rather than replace the amount of tungsten used.

## How is tungsten produced?

Tungsten ore is mined from open pits and underground veins, then crushed and concentrated. Wolframite and scheelite are both heavy, so mills use gravity separation and flotation to lift tungsten out of the host rock. The product is a concentrate that is rich in tungsten trioxide, and it is this material that is traded internationally as HS 261100.

The concentrate is then digested in an alkaline solution, which dissolves the tungsten into a tungstate solution that can be purified of impurities such as phosphorus, arsenic and molybdenum. Ammonia is added and ammonium paratungstate (APT) crystallizes out. APT is the standard intermediate of the industry, the form in which most tungsten chemistry is priced and sold.

APT is heated to drive off ammonia and water, leaving tungsten oxide, which is reduced with hydrogen to tungsten metal powder. Tungsten melts at 3,422 degrees Celsius, the highest of any metal, so it cannot be cast in the ordinary way. It is shaped as a powder, pressed into bars and sintered, which is why unwrought tungsten includes sintered bars. Heating the powder with carbon makes tungsten carbide, and sintering that carbide with a binder, usually [cobalt](/commodities/cobalt/), produces cemented carbide.

Everything on this page is tungsten content unless stated, as reported by USGS. Concentrates, APT and oxide each contain a different proportion of tungsten, and prices are quoted per metric ton unit of tungsten trioxide, so comparing a quoted price with a production figure needs a conversion.


## What is tungsten used for?

Cemented carbide takes the largest share. USGS estimates that most tungsten consumed in the United States goes into cemented carbide parts for cutting and wear-resistant applications, mainly in construction, metalworking, mining and oil and gas drilling. Tungsten carbide approaches diamond in hardness, which is why carbide inserts, drill bits and mining tools dominate demand.

The remainder is used in alloys and specialty steels, where tungsten adds hardness at high temperatures, including high-speed tool steels and superalloys, and in mill products: wires, electrodes, contacts and filaments for electrical, electronic, heating, lighting and welding uses. Tungsten wire replaced earlier filament materials in lamps from about 1911, and although light-emitting diodes have displaced much filament lighting, tungsten wire and electrodes remain in welding, heating and electronics.

Heavy alloys exploit tungsten's density, which is close to that of gold. They are used for counterweights, radiation shielding and military items such as penetrators, where USGS lists depleted uranium or lead as alternatives when high density or radiation shielding is needed. Chemical compounds of tungsten are used as catalysts, pigments and high-temperature lubricants.


## Supply chain and chokepoints

The chain runs from mine to concentrate, concentrate to APT, APT to oxide and powder, and powder to carbide, tool or mill product. The mining step is concentrated in one country, while the trade tables show that the leading exporter of ore (Bolivia, 15% of export value) and of unwrought tungsten (China, 61%) differ. Concentrate has to be processed by plants with hydrometallurgical, reduction and powder-metallurgy capability before it becomes carbide or metal.

That is why tungsten is a [critical mineral](/critical-minerals/) in the United States (2025 list) and the European Union (2024 list). The concern is less the quantity of tungsten in the ground than dependence on a few sources: USGS reports that China has the largest reserves and resources and is the leading producer, importer and consumer of concentrates, and the USTR's December 2024 tariff notice cites reliance on China for tungsten products as a supply-chain vulnerability. See the glossary entry on a [critical mineral](/glossary/critical-mineral/) for how governments define the term, and the explainer on [critical minerals and the energy transition](/learn/critical-minerals-energy-transition/).

The largest customers are manufacturers rather than miners: carbide tooling feeds machining, construction, mining and drilling. Substitutes exist for some uses but, according to USGS, in many applications they cost more or perform worse. Government measures have added a policy layer: China's export controls of February 2025 cover items including tungsten products, and a US section 301 tariff of 25 percent on three tungsten subheadings from China took effect on 1 January 2025. As far as could be verified, the February 2025 controls remain in force; a November 2025 law-firm summary (Pillsbury) listed them as still valid, and the status after that was not checked.

The physical logistics are modest. Tungsten trade is small by bulk-commodity standards, so freight is not the constraint. The factors to watch are the licensing and tariff measures described above and the time a new mine needs to reach production.


## Key companies

- Almonty Industries: miner (Sangdong in South Korea, Panasqueira in Portugal), United States, listed (ALM)
- Masan High-Tech Materials: miner and refiner (Nui Phao mine and Masan Tungsten in Vietnam), Vietnam, listed
- Plansee Group: powder-metallurgy processor of tungsten and molybdenum, Austria
- Sandvik: engineering group with mining and machining tools, Sweden, listed (SAND)

## Timeline

- 1783: Spanish chemists isolate tungsten from wolframite. Carl Wilhelm Scheele had derived an acid from scheelite in 1781 and suggested it could be reduced to a new metal, and in 1783 Juan José and Fausto Elhuyar isolated tungsten, working from wolframite, which is why the two ore minerals carry both names. (https://www.lanl.gov/science-engineering/periodic-table/element/tungsten)
- 1911: Ductile tungsten filaments replace tantalum in lamps. William D. Coolidge's process at General Electric made tungsten wire workable, and tungsten filaments replaced tantalum from 1911, an early mass market for the metal. (https://www.edisontechcenter.org/coolidge.html)
- 1923: Cemented carbide patent is filed. Karl Schröter of Osram filed German patent DE420689 on 30 March 1923 for a sintered hard metal of tungsten carbide, originally to replace diamond in wire-drawing dies, the foundation of the cutting-tool and mining-tool market. (https://www.sandvik.coromant.com/en-us/press/celebrating-cemented-carbide)
- 2015: The United States stops mining tungsten commercially. USGS reports there has been no commercial US tungsten mine since 2015, so US industry depends on imported concentrate, imported intermediates and scrap for the converters that remain. (https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-tungsten.pdf)
- 2025-01: US section 301 tariff on Chinese tungsten products rises to 25 percent. A USTR notice of 16 December 2024 set a 25 percent rate on three tungsten subheadings, including unwrought tungsten, for goods entered from 1 January 2025, adding a tariff layer to the trade flows described on this page. (https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/Section%20301%20Tungsten.pdf)
- 2025-02: China imposes export controls on selected tungsten items. On 4 February 2025 China's Ministry of Commerce and customs administration announced licensing requirements for exports of items related to tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium, with immediate effect. (http://english.news.cn/20250204/cb07a7cd42a94ba3b4ed44cbcdecd9e4/c.html)
- 2025: Boguty in Kazakhstan starts production. USGS credits the start of production at the Boguty deposit with much of the increase in world mine production in 2025, and Kazakhstan appears in the production table for 2025 but not for 2024. (https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-tungsten.pdf)
- 2025-10: A Kazakhstan and United States tungsten joint venture is announced. USGS records an October 2025 announcement of a joint venture between Kazakhstan and the United States to develop tungsten resources, alongside Defense Production Act awards to tungsten projects in Nevada, New Brunswick and Yukon. (https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-tungsten.pdf)
- 2026-01: China restricts dual-use exports to Japanese military end users. A 6 January 2026 announcement by China's Ministry of Commerce prohibited exports of dual-use items to Japanese military end users or uses, and tungsten products including APT, oxide and carbide are on the dual-use list, according to trade press. (https://www.fastmarkets.com/insights/tungsten-market-participants-concern-china-tightens-export-controls-japan/)

## Frequently asked questions

### which country produces the most tungsten

China mined 67,000 tonnes of tungsten content in 2025, 79% of the world's 85,000 tonnes (USGS MCS). Vietnam was second with 3.5% and Kazakhstan third with 2.8%. Figures are tungsten content, not ore tonnage, and are estimates.

### what is tungsten used for

Mainly as tungsten carbide in cemented carbide, the hard material in cutting tools, mining tools and drill bits. It is also used in alloy and tool steels, in wires, electrodes and filaments, and in dense alloys for counterweights, shielding and military items.

### how much tungsten is left

World reserves are 4.7 million tonnes (USGS MCS), with China holding 53% of the total and Australia 12%. USGS says resources are widely spread, with significant resources on every continent except Antarctica, so the constraint is mines and conversion plants rather than ore.

### does china export most of the world's tungsten ore

No. Bolivia led exports of tungsten ore and concentrate (HS 261100) in 2024 with 15% of world export value, while China was the largest importer with 49% (CEPII BACI). The largest miner, China, buys ore rather than selling it. Where it leads is unwrought tungsten: China held 61% of exports of that line.

### why is there no tungsten price on this page

No free public series exists. Tungsten is priced by private agencies in dollars per metric ton unit of tungsten trioxide, which contains 7.93 kilograms of tungsten according to USGS, for concentrate and for ammonium paratungstate. Assessments are sold by subscription and no widely used futures contract exists, so this site shows no price level.

### what are china's tungsten export controls

On 4 February 2025 China's Ministry of Commerce and customs administration announced export controls on items related to tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium, requiring licenses for exports. A November 2025 summary by the law firm Pillsbury listed it among measures still valid, and a trade-control profile reviewed in August 2026 also lists it as active; no notice lifting it was found. Check the ministry's notices for later changes.

## Sources

- USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, MCS 2026, fetched 8 October 2026. License: Public domain (US Government work). https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/mineral-commodity-summaries
- CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601), BACI HS22 V202601, fetched 6 September 2026. License: Etalab Open Licence 2.0. https://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/en/bdd_modele/bdd_modele_item.asp?id=37

Text last reviewed 2026-10-06. The text is written with AI assistance and checked against the cited data; figures are computed by scripts from the sources (https://commodityorigins.com/about/#how-ai-is-used). Cite as: Commodity Origins, "Where does tungsten come from?", https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/tungsten/.