Where does tungsten come from?

Rank China's tungsten suppliers by the USGS mining table and you would miss Myanmar. In 2024 North Korea and Myanmar together supplied 45% of China's tungsten ore and concentrate import value (HS 261100; our arithmetic on CEPII BACI). North Korea sent 100% of its ore exports to China and Myanmar 98%. USGS credits North Korea with 2,000 tonnes of tungsten content in 2025, against reserves of 29,000 tonnes that cover 14.5 years of that output, and lists no Myanmar mine output. Trade weights are gross weight of concentrate while mine output is tungsten content, so the two cannot be compared tonne for tonne.

Declared prices for unwrought tungsten swing widely depending on who is reporting. In 2024 China shipped 40% of the 3,923 tonnes of unwrought tungsten (HS 810194) traded but took 61% of export value (CEPII BACI). Among the five largest exporters, China declared $50,414 per tonne and the United Kingdom $69,268, while the United States, Japan and Germany declared $18,112 to $22,690. Those three countries declared $43,583 to $49,705 per tonne on their imports. The pattern fits different product forms sharing one customs code, which the data cannot confirm.

Tungsten reserves grew in the same years that mining hit a record. World mine output reached 85,000 tonnes in 2025, the highest in the USGS series that begins in 1905, yet reserves rose from 3.8 million tonnes (USGS MCS 2023) to 4.7 million tonnes (MCS 2026), a gain of 24% (our arithmetic), after 246,500 tonnes were mined in 2023 to 2025. Reserves are a lower bound that moves with estimates. The world's 55 years of static cover (reserves divided by 2025 output) includes 950,000 tonnes listed only as rest of world; without that line and the 2,400 tonnes of output outside the listed countries it is 45 years, against 37 years for China alone. See country reserve life and how much is left.

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.

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 for how to read such tables.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

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 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 for how governments define the term, and the explainer on critical minerals and the 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.