20 Feb 2025 10:02 am
I get it. We have reserves but produce very little. So, if prices for tungsten get high enough, America will mine and produce tungsten. I'm not too worried about it.Cannonpointer » 51 minutes ago » wrote: ↑ Russia has about the same known tungsten reserves that we have - so, no. No one is beholden to Russia for tungsten supply. Given Russia's industrial surge to feed the war machine, I am reasonably confident that it's a net importer of the stuff.
China has 80% of the world's known reserves - so that could be a different situation. Especially since they have apparently added it to their banned substances list.
But even with less than 5% of known global reserves, the U.S. is far from a shortage of tungsten. 5% of global reserves is an enormous amount of tungsten - more tungsten than every country on earth except a few.
The problem isn't reserves. The problem is production. We currently produce none.
If everything went without a single hiccup, there is one mine in Nevada that could begin producing tungsten three years from today.
As of 2022, the US had 6,850 metric tons of tungsten in its stockpiles.
The United States consumes around 11,400 metric tons of tungsten annually, and this number is increasing.
Canada produces about 2,128 metric tons of tungsten concentrate each year.
Bolivia produces around 1,600 metric tons of tungsten per year.
Germany produces less than 10,000 metric tons annually.
I think you can see the problem. If we lose supply, we're ****. Canada is no closer to upping its production than the U.S. is. In fact, they are more than three years out from opening a new tungsten mine.
The great news for the U.S. are these:
1. Our tungsten supply chain is quite diverse. China is a significant exporter to the US, but other suppliers are spain and portugal and bolivia and thailand and canada and mongolia and portugal and korea and germany and several others.
2. The US has the economic strength to outbid other nations for available supplies - especially in the military sector, since the pentagon prints that ****.
The bad news are these:
1. Chyna has the local muscle to lock us out of mongolia and thailand. And it is rapidly gaining that strength in bolivia, which was recently admitted to brics. Bolivia has no history of being abused by chyna, and a new beau is the loveliest beau, especially when the old beau was abusive and the new beau brings flowers.
2. As the turd world RAPIDLY increases its already rapid industrialization because of the brics cooperation, competition for tungsten is sure to increase. The increased competition, combined with an embargo by the chinee and its sympathizers/vassals/favor-seekers, could make already high U.S. production costs impossible for everyone but military contractors.
The other news are these:
1. The increased competition for tungsten will naturally and automatically cause an increase in supply.
2. Energy prices in the E.U., if they continue to use american gas, will likely free up a small amount of tungsten as Europe de-industrializes. Germany is - or was, anyway - the economic and industrial engine that drove the E.U. It has high resource costs, as it imports almost EVERYTHING, and it has high labor costs. But it had cheap energy and brilliant engineers. Those were its trump card. So it was able to be a major exporter of manufactured items. Since the loss of Russian gas, Germany has become the sick man of Europe.