Almonty partners with Rwanda to source and process tungsten outside China

Almonty and Rwanda sign a binding supply agreement

Almonty Industries (NASDAQ:ALM), a tungsten miner headquartered in Montana, announced on September 14, 2026 a binding agreement with the Government of Rwanda to source and process tungsten from the African country. The partnership grants Almonty exploration and processing licenses in Rwanda, while the Rwandan government will receive a 25% interest in Almonty's local subsidiary. Tungsten produced through the venture will be shipped to customers in the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea, according to the company.

Near-term supply from existing Rwandan producers

Rather than starting a greenfield mine, Almonty said the deal is structured to capture material already coming out of Rwanda's mining industry. The company plans to acquire ore, pre-concentrate and panning tailings from licensed Rwandan producers, including small-scale license holders, and to sell, upgrade or export that material while a permanent collection and processing facility is built. Almonty Chairman and CEO Lewis Black framed the immediate opportunity around output already on the market. "Rwanda's small-scale license holders are producing ore, pre-concentrate and panning tailings today, and this agreement allows us to collect, upgrade and export that material while we build out the collection and processing plant," he said. The venture also plans to deploy a mobile processing unit near existing tailings dams and to explore the 32-square-kilometer Shyorongi concession contributed by the Rwandan government. Further development will be conditional on a separate binding investment and development agreement.

A Western push to diversify away from China

The deal sits inside a broader US-led effort to secure critical minerals outside China, which dominates global tungsten mining and processing. The US government helped structure the Rwanda partnership and provided political support but is not contributing funding, Black said in an interview. He described the structure as a blueprint for other countries where small-scale tungsten mining is practiced. Rwanda is the only African nation among the world's 10 largest tungsten producers, giving it an outsized role in Western diversification efforts. Vancouver-based Trinity Metals Ltd., which operates the continent's largest tungsten mine at Nyakabingo, said in June that more than 320 tons of high-grade concentrate had been shipped to a Pennsylvania processing facility since an offtake deal was struck the previous year, supplying as much as 20% of US primary tungsten concentrate consumption.

Pricing backdrop and traceability risks

The partnership comes against a sharply tighter tungsten market. Tungsten prices are up more than eightfold since Beijing added certain products to its export control list in February 2025, trading near $3,000 per metric ton unit as buyers exhausted stockpiles and Middle East conflict sharpened focus on military demand. At the same time, Almonty acknowledged that tapping Rwanda's fragmented small-scale sector carries execution risk. "Traders can play with the pirates," Black said. "We're only interested in licensed domestic output." Rwanda has faced longstanding allegations that tungsten smuggled from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi is laundered through its supply chain and exported as Rwandan, raising labor, environmental and traceability scrutiny for Western buyers.

Next milestone

Further development of the partnership is contingent on Almonty and the Government of Rwanda concluding a binding investment and development agreement, alongside deployment of the mobile processing unit and initial collection of ore, pre-concentrate and panning tailings from existing Rwandan license holders.