Tungsten’s sixfold surge: Pakistan’s mineral processing opportunity

Business Recorder · 31/10/2026، 3:43:24 PM

A sixfold rise in tungsten prices says more about who refines critical minerals than who holds them. Pakistan ships concentrate abroad and buys the finished metal back - a gap that $1.3 billion of US financing does not by itself close. The price of tungsten rose 622% between January 2025 and April 2026, according to the International Energy Agency’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026. Tantalum climbed 196% over the same period, cobalt 134%, neodymium 116% and lithium 108%. Even copper, aluminium and chromium - the base metals underpinning power grids and steelmaking - rose between 39% and 53%. The rally is not speculative. It reflects a structural shift in how the world sources the raw materials of the technological and defence age. Tungsten’s surge tracks Chinese export controls colliding with firm demand for a metal used in cutting tools, aerospace components and munitions. Tungsten is a metal known for having the highest melting point of all metals (3,422°C) and exceptional hardness, strength and density. It is widely used in industrial applications, including cutting and drilling tools, mining equipment, military ammunition, aerospace components and high-temperature machinery. Tungsten is also used in specialised alloys, electronics and electrical contacts because of its ability to withstand extreme heat and wear. China controls the overwhelming majority of global tungsten mining and a larger share still of its refining; when Beijing tightens licensing, world markets move immediately. Not every line on the chart is a China story. Cobalt’s rise owes more to export restrictions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, lithium’s to energy-storage demand outrunning supply. The common factor is concentration. The IEA estimates China accounted for roughly 70% of refined production across key energy minerals last year. Where one country refines most of what the world needs, price becomes a function of policy. For Pakistan, the numbers arrive as mineral wealth moves from