Almonty Agrees to Supply Tungsten Concentrate From Mine Waste to Sandvik

By Robb M. Stewart

Almonty Industries has inked a longterm deal to supply tungsten concentrate to an arm of Sandvik from mine waste stockpiled at an operation in Spain that is preparing to resume production.

The multi-year, take-or-pay agreement covers a minimum of about 1,720 metric tons of contained tungsten trioxide recovered from retreatment of tailings at the Los Santos Mine in western Spain.

The deal, was struck ahead of the planned restart of the Los Santos mine that has been idled since early 2020, offers Almonty a route to market before production resumes at the mine. For Sandvik's Wolfram Bergbau und Hutten subsidiary, the pact adds a European-origin feed source for a smelter that supplies hard-metal and powder-metallurgy industries as the U.S. cracks down on tungsten supplies from China and elsewhere.

Almonty's mine restart plan is centered on retreating inventory left behind by earlier processing rather than on new primary extraction.

The agreement with Sandvik's subsidiary includes a conditional "pay-to-play" upfront $3 million one-time payment for the offtake rights.

Wolfram Bergbau und Hutten, which has been part of Sweden's Sandvik since 2009, operates a refining and powder manufacturing complex at St. Martin im Sulmtal in Austria, where scheelite concentrate from its own Mittersill mine and concentrate purchased from around the world are processed alongside recycled secondary tungsten materials. The facility is the only integrated tungsten smelting plant outside of Asia and Russia.

The deal between Sandvik and Almonty comes ahead of a significant change in U.S. defense procurement rules. From next year, restrictions on specified tungsten materials originating in China, Russia, North Korea and Iran extend back through the supply chain to the mining or production of tungsten ore or feedstock, making documented non-Chinese origin increasingly important for tungsten entering U.S. defense supply chains, Almonty said.

"What this agreement gives us is a take-or-pay commitment from a Sandvik Group company, index-linked pricing with a floor beneath it and a sharing of the financial requirements to reactivate the property," Almonty President and Chief Executive Lewis Black said.

"That combination is what allows us to bring a European Union asset back into production with a defined route to market from the first shipment."

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

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September 17, 2026 08:51 ET (12:51 GMT)