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A Soon-To-Be Precious Commodity

By Byron King

 

12/11/09 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Keep an eye on tungsten. As I’ve mentioned before, tungsten is critical to machine tools and numerous other high-tech applications.

 

What we’re seeing globally — and what several top-level experts confirmed to me this week in London — is that there are some metals facing looming supply shortages. The days of a user just calling up the supply house and ordering off the shelf are ending. Tungsten is in one of those scenarios just now.

 

Several of the world’s largest non-Chinese tungsten mines got bought outright this year by tungsten users. The users understand that their supply chain is only as strong as the weakest link. And that weak link is the supply of ore in the ground plus the mine, mill and upgrading facility to obtain the basic raw material.

 

It’s not like there are a slew of other mines out there waiting for the price to go up so they can open the workings and push product out the door. In the West, there is only LEGACY tungsten mining — mines and mills from years ago. There’s NOTHING new in the pipeline.

 

If you want to have some exposure to a critical, strategic metal with virtually NO substitute, you need to own some shares of one miner in my Energy & Scarcity portfolio. I’ve met the CEO, and he’s a solid player. He has a working mine, he’s selling product, he has cash flow and he has ANOTHER mine that he’s working to develop. It’s a rock-solid story.

 

/see: http://dailyreckoning.com/a-soon-to-be-precious-commodity/

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(old article)

 

China's stranglehold on tungsten

China's edge on the vital metal is a disadvantage for the U.S.

 

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Used in everything from light bulbs to bullets, tungsten is a metal that's all but monopolized by China, which produces about 85% of the world's supply -- leaving the U.S. at a handicap.

 

Tungsten is actually "one of those seldom considered metals that contribute broadly to modern life," said Eric Coffin, editor of the HRA Journal and other publications focused on metals exploration, development and production stocks.

 

And the "the need for new tungsten supplies has created a business opportunity for new suppliers," said Lawrence Roulston, editor of the investment newsletter Resource Opportunities.

 

 

Unfortunately, the U.S. does not mine tungsten, though it does have a few "large plants that take tungsten concentrate and produce intermediate products and finished products from it," said Coffin. Some companies like lighting manufacturer OSRAM Sylvania have "long-term supply contracts that ensure at least some of the concentrate will keep showing up," but "this doesn't guarantee supply per se."

 

Tungsten's used in light filaments and in the military to make armor-piercing bullets, but the biggest use is as cemented carbides, or "hardmetals," in industrial applications such as tools and dies.

 

The metal's extremely-high melting point also means that it's useful for things like drill bits, where hardness and ability to withstand high heat and friction are a must, said Coffin. That's particularly important given the growth in drilling in the oil and mining industries.

 

Tungsten's increasing uses and growing economic demand for the metal has helped prices climb more than 300% in almost 10 years to average $254.50 per metric ton unit of ammonium paratungstate, as of Nov. 8, according to Maria Smirnova, a research associate at Sprott Asset Management Inc. Ammonium paratungstate, or APT, is a product of tungsten concentrates, according to the International Tungsten Industry Association. See the Web site.

 

Prices are up around 180% in just the last two years, said Smirnova, emphasizing that prices didn't really begin to rise until about 2005. See Metal Bulletin for subscription-based pricing.

 

And China "has by far the largest resources base" in the world for tungsten, said Coffin. It's been the dominant supplier for decades and that's unlikely to change.

 

That bodes well for China, especially since global demand for the metal has been climbing at a pace of 5%-6% a year "thanks to industrialization and use of tungsten in a wider variety of products," according to Coffin.

 

Global mine production of tungsten in 2005 was estimated at 76,500 metric tons, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. China's mine production that year was estimated at 69,000.

 

The biggest problem is that China has become a "net importer of ore and only exports finished goods containing tungsten," said Robert Hinchcliffe, chief executive officer at Elko, Nevada-based Galway Resources (CA:GWY 1.67, -0.04, -2.34%) .

 

China's pull

 

China's strength in the market has been more than apparent. The country has gone through periods in the past where it undertook -- intentionally or otherwise -- "predatory pricing that wiped out almost all Western production of the metal," said Coffin.

 

Part of that was due to its drive for foreign currency when it first started opening up its economy, he said. And the last extended run up in tungsten prices happened in the late 1970s to early 1980s following a "terrible earthquake in one of China's main-producing areas that cut back supplies for years," he said.

 

Now tungsten is experiencing the same process the metals market has seen with other metals, he said. "The domestic (Chinese) market has increased a vast amount and is now absorbing most of the internal production."

 

"It no longer needs to sell at a loss or generate foreign reserves and ... has gone from offering exporters credits on sales of concentrate or APT to charging excise in the past couple of years," he said.

 

/more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-st...C&sid=46640

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  • 4 weeks later...

Wish you would SHOUT these themes a bit louder sometimes.

 

Noticed this and I picked out Largo resources to watch, unfortunately i'm still watching as they pinged up from 15c to around mid 20's in last week :(

 

Any specific companies that you might be watching Dr B, I don't mind high risk.

 

Bit wary of jumping on Largo now, as risen from 5c in little over a year, but they also have Moly interests too in the Yukon and Vanadium in Brazil. So maybe room for more upside, just had big spike though.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Wish you would SHOUT these themes a bit louder sometimes.

 

Noticed this and I picked out Largo resources to watch, unfortunately i'm still watching as they pinged up from 15c to around mid 20's in last week :(

 

Any specific companies that you might be watching Dr B, I don't mind high risk.

 

Bit wary of jumping on Largo now, as risen from 5c in little over a year, but they also have Moly interests too in the Yukon and Vanadium in Brazil. So maybe room for more upside, just had big spike though.

 

 

Riggerbeautz & Dr Bubbs

 

Have a look at the following:

 

1.Pacific Bay Minerals – it’s Canadian. It had a big run up in October 2006 on the hope that their property in the Otish Mountains had uranium like neighbour Strateeco Resources. It looks as if those hopes are no more and the stock has bombed. But, they acquired the Haskins-Reed property in BC some time ago together with historic drill core. On examination and assay they have found that one of the cores of 66m yielded 0.11% Tungsten and 43 meteres of 0.05% Moly. They are finding drill targets at the moment so it’s speculative at the extreme.

 

2. Yankee Hat Minerals. Just raised some cash to do some drilling on its Kidlark Yukon property. Grab samples showed some impressive moly and tungsten numbers – BUT only grab samples not drills! Bombed out at the moment with 73m shares out; they are consolidating in a 5 for 1. Speculative in the extreme but still able to raise a bit of money for the drilling.

 

3. North American Tungsten Corp. Existing mine for tungsten. Rather a lot of shares out (200m) Has just raised some more cash. There has been a change of management.

 

As usual a bombed out chart.

 

These are only on my radar NOT in my portfolio!

 

 

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