There’s a metal you’ve probably never thought about that’s become a national security headache. Tungsten. It’s in everything from tank rounds to spacecraft components, and right now, China basically owns the market.
The statistics are uncomfortable. China dominates global tungsten mining and processing, and that’s a problem when you need the stuff for armor-piercing ammunition and missiles. For decades, nobody seemed to care much. Outsourcing was cheaper. Supply chains were “efficient.” Then geopolitics got messy again.
Now the federal government is restricting imports, and suddenly an abandoned mine in the American West looks a lot more interesting than it did twenty years ago.
The Tungsten Queen Rises Again
Stacy Hastie and Randy Waterfield, the founders behind United States Tungsten, are betting that timing is everything. They’re reviving what used to be America’s largest tungsten mine, aptly named the Tungsten Queen. During World War II and through the late 1960s, this site was pumping out serious volume. Then Chinese production undercut everyone, and it shut down.
But here’s the thing about abandoned mines in an era of supply chain nationalism: they don’t stay abandoned forever.
United States Tungsten says the site holds roughly 1 million tons of tungsten with an estimated in-ground value approaching $450 million. They’re already talking with the U.S. Government about potential partnerships. The pitch is straightforward: domestic supply, no Chinese middlemen, perfect timing with military budgets going up.
It’s the kind of business story that sounds almost too convenient, except the macro forces actually line up.
Why Tungsten Actually Matters
Tungsten is ridiculously dense, denser than lead, and tougher than steel. When you need something that won’t fail under extreme heat and stress, tungsten is often the only option. That’s why it ends up in artillery shells and aerospace components where failure means people die or billion-dollar equipment explodes.
The raw mineral market is worth about $3 billion. But once you factor in all the downstream defense hardware and electronics that depend on it, you’re talking about industries worth hundreds of billions.
And unlike some commodities where demand fluctuates with economic cycles, defense spending is stickier. Governments don’t suddenly decide they need fewer missiles because consumer confidence dropped. The President has proposed a $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027, nearly doubling from the previous year. Every dollar of that increase compounds demand for materials like tungsten.
Policy is lining up too. The White House is actively pushing to shift critical mineral supply chains back to American soil. It’s not subtle. They want domestic sources for exactly this kind of strategic material, and they’re willing to back it with procurement contracts and incentives.
The Government Buyer Problem
Here’s what makes this different from most mining plays. The U.S. military isn’t some fickle customer chasing quarterly trends. They’re looking for long-term, reliable domestic suppliers they can depend on when things get tense with Beijing. That creates a fundamentally different dynamic than selling into commodity markets.
For a company like United States Tungsten, landing government contracts would mean the kind of revenue predictability most technology startups can only dream about. Governments expand procurement during downturns. They don’t ghost you when venture capital dries up.
Of course, this is still a mining operation we’re talking about. There’s permitting. Environmental reviews. Actual digging. Processing infrastructure. It’s not like flipping a switch and tungsten comes out. But the founders clearly saw this window opening and moved to position themselves right in the middle of it.
The Narrow Window Pitch
United States Tungsten is running a Regulation CF offering right now, which is basically crowdfunding for companies that want to raise money from regular investors, not just accredited millionaires. They’re pitching this as a narrow window before production ramps up, though let’s be honest, that’s always the pitch.
What’s different here is the policy backdrop actually supports the narrative. Reshoring critical minerals isn’t just founder hype, it’s literally written into White House executive orders and military procurement strategy. The question isn’t whether America needs domestic tungsten. The question is whether this particular mine and this particular team can execute.
And that’s where things get interesting. Because if they can pull it off, they’re not just tapping into a commodity cycle. They’re becoming infrastructure for national security. That’s the kind of positioning that can turn a mining play into something that actually matters beyond the next earnings report.
The geopolitics of tungsten might not keep you up at night, but it’s definitely keeping someone at the Pentagon up, and that tension between what we need and where we get it is only getting sharper.
