The military metal par excellence is Tungsten for its usage in shells and in armour plating to resist said shells.

While Tungsten means “heavy stone” in Swedish, its main source since its rise to industrial usage has been the Iberian peninsula.

What makes Tungsten, the key military metal?

  • It is used in making bulletproof vehicles, armoured tanks, and other kinds of protective equipment designed to withstand the high-speed impact of bullets. This is due to the hardness of tungsten. And this property, as well as others, can be enhanced through alloying to yield stronger composite materials.
  • It is used in making armour-piercing rounds. These are designed to pierce through protective armour and vehicles designed to be bulletproof. Tungsten can tolerate high levels of shock and does not easily shatter.
  • It is used in making high-speed cutting tools. These tools are usually made of high- speed steel, and they cut much quicker than ordinary carbon steel. Tungsten’s ability to withstand high temperatures makes it indispensable in fabricating these tools and when cutting at such high speeds.
  • Tungsten is also used in the manufacturing of rocket and aircraft parts. It is instrumental in manufacturing parts like engines because of the high temperatures they have to withstand. Tungsten has a high thermal resistance and can withstand high temperatures without defect.

Case Study: Spain & Portugal in WW2

This produces an interesting history which has relevance today because it is the back-story to the massive tug of war over Portugal and to a lesser extent Spain during WW2. In this story lies some good examples of our “supply & deny” watchwords.

Following the invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany became dependent on Portugal and Spain for their Tungsten supplies, due to its value in producing war munitions. To maintain its neutrality, Portugal set up a strict export quota system in 1942. This concept of neutrality through equal division of products supplied to belligerents was different from that of the Northern European neutrals who worked on the basis of “normal pre-war supplies”.

However, in January 1944, the Allies began pressuring the Portuguese dictator Salazar to embargo all Tungsten sales destined for Germany. Portugal resisted, defending their right as a neutral state to sell to anyone and fearing that any reduction in their German exports would prompt Germany to attack Portuguese shipping.

Despite the seeming closeness of Franco to Hitler, he was also a fence-sitter and had to do an even more perilous balancing act, thinking forward to what might happen if he was unequivocally seen as tied to the Nazis should they not win. At the top end of Europe, Hitler had neutral Sweden blackmailing him over iron ore supplies and to the East he had to contend with a “friendly” Romania over oil supplies. Such is the dilemma, writ small, that China will have if it ever decides to go ballistic (pardon the pun).

Pricing

It is worth noting though that current prices are still way below the nearly US$470 per MTU of Ammonium Paratungstate that was achieved in the first half of 2011. The recent stability makes one almost remember the days of rip-roaring gyrations with fondness. But then again it was those crazy movements which killed off most of the players in the space.

There are still a handful of Tungsten producers (and developers) out there, but the price turnaround is relatively recent, and therefore has attracted few new players.

After being in the doghouse for so long, and having so few players, it is no surprise that this metal has fallen out of sight of investors and promoters (maybe not a bad thing).

The mantra though is production, production, production and having projects that are on the drawing board and unlikely to leave it does not charm funding out of the military in ANY country. This sets up a scenario where the non-serious will hopefully be relegated to a distant second place in the attentions of the markets.