Guardian Metal Resources works to onshore tungsten production

Drilling in 2024 at Guardian Metal Resources' Pilot Mountain site in Nevada. (Guardian Metal Resources)

Guardian Metal Resources is seeking to develop its Pilot Mountain project in Nevada to bring tungsten production back to the United States, Oliver Friesen, CEO of Guardian Metal Resources, told Janes on 21 November. The project, still in the pre-feasibility stage, comes as the US is working to strengthen defence supply chains and reduce dependence on foreign sources for key minerals and metals.

The Biden administration implemented a 25% tariff on a variety of goods, including critical minerals, from China in September. China has announced its own export restrictions. In August, China unveiled an export ban on antimony, a component in making tungsten steel and hardening lead bullets, according to a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report dated 20 August. China accounts for 48% of global antimony production and 63% of US antimony imports, the report said.

This was followed in mid-November with new export controls on dual-use technologies and items, including tungsten, graphite, magnesium, and aluminium alloys, that are to enter force on 1 December, according to a report in Japan's Nikkei newspaper on 16 November. This was the latest salvo in a “trade war that's escalating globally [with] countries looking to weaponise the supply chain of some key metals”, particularly defence metals, Friesen said.

The extent of the new Chinese restrictions on tungsten is not yet clear, but the announcement has generated interest in domestic sources, Friesen said. “I think the takeaway … is that the US needs domestic supplies and mining of tungsten and antimony” to reduce dependence on China and other foreign entities for critical minerals.