Tungsten, unwrought

Primary uses. wear-resistant cemented carbide cutting tools; superalloys; electrical contacts.

The chain — from the ground to the buyer

A critical material passes through distinct stages, and the country that leads each stage is often different — that gap is what this atlas exists to show. Each layer comes from a different public source with its own vintage, labelled below; shares are % of the world total.

● Reserves — where it could come from

Reserves are the deposits known to exist and economically worth mining — the long-run ceiling on supply, distinct from what is actually produced today. Tungsten's reserves are moderately concentrated: 🇨🇳 China holds the most (52%), ahead of 🇦🇺 Australia (13%) and 🇷🇺 Russia (9%). At today's extraction rate the known reserves would last roughly 56 years, so scarcity is not the binding constraint — access, capital and processing capacity are. USGS 2024 · reserves as of 2023

● Mined — where it is dug up today

Mining is where ore leaves the ground — the stage most people equate with “the source”, though it is rarely where the supply risk actually concentrates. Output is highly concentrated: 🇨🇳 China supplies 81%, with 🇻🇳 Vietnam (4%) next. That is effectively a single-country dependence — one government's policy or one region's disruption can move the entire upstream. BGS World Mineral Statistics · mine production, 2000–2024 (USGS-validated)

● Refined / processed — where it becomes usable metal

Refining / processing converts ore into the metal or compound buyers actually purchase; it concentrates in fewer hands than mining and sits at the buyer's doorstep, which is why it is usually the true chokepoint. 🇨🇳 China processes 86% — highly concentrated. China leads both mining and refining, so its grip is structural rather than a pure processing gate. On the buffers: 42% of supply is recovered from end-of-life recycling and substitutes are scarce, while the US imports >50% of what it consumes. EU CRM 2023

● Recycling & substitutability — the mitigants (EU CRM)

42% of supply comes from recycling end-of-life products — a meaningful secondary source that lowers the supply-risk score. Substitutability is high — few or no alternatives, so a disruption bites hard.

● Traded — who ships it

Actual bilateral trade of the traded form, reconciled from UN Comtrade / CEPII BACI. Pick a year below — 2018–2024 measured, 2025* nowcast, 2026** directional scenario. The full 2002–2026 range is on the interactive atlas.

Context

China is the largest origin (~58% value, ~73% tonnage) but not alone - Britain supplies ~22%. Even here the naive view (Germany 55%) misstates who the EU relies on.

Every figure on this page is computed from out/data.json and out/flows_2024.json by build_profiles.py — no hand-entered numbers.