Almonty Signs Tungsten Supply Deal With Sandvik For Spanish Tailings
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Long-Term Agreement Adds a New Source of European Tungsten
Almonty Industries has signed a long-term tungsten concentrate supply agreement with Wolfram Bergbau und Hütten AG (WBH), a subsidiary of Sandvik Group, covering the recovery of tungsten from existing tailings at the Los Santos Mine in western Spain. The agreement is structured as a multi-year take-or-pay arrangement and covers a minimum of approximately 1,720 tonnes of contained tungsten trioxide (WO₃).
Tungsten Recovery Will Focus on Existing Mine Tailings
The material covered by the agreement will come from the existing tailings inventory at Los Santos rather than from a newly developed mining operation. Almonty plans to restart processing at the site and retreat the historical tailings to recover additional tungsten concentrate, providing a route to bring previously processed material back into the supply chain.
Los Santos Mine Provides an Existing Processing Base
The Los Santos Mine is an open-pit scheelite skarn operation located about 50 kilometres south of Salamanca in western Spain. The mine has been under care and maintenance since February 2020, and the new agreement is linked to the planned restart of processing activities at the operation.
Tailings Recycling Can Shorten the Supply Development Cycle
Recovering tungsten from existing tailings can provide a different route to additional supply compared with developing a new mine from the exploration stage. Existing mine infrastructure, historical material inventories and established processing sites can potentially reduce some of the development steps associated with a completely new mining project, although recovery performance and processing economics still depend on the characteristics of the tailings and the technology used.
European Tungsten Supply Gains a Recycling Component
The agreement also connects a Spanish tungsten resource with a European downstream processing company. WBH operates tungsten processing facilities in Austria and produces tungsten products including tungsten metal and tungsten carbide powders, while also processing secondary tungsten materials. The arrangement therefore links tailings recovery with established downstream tungsten processing capacity in Europe.
Secondary Materials Become More Relevant to Tungsten Supply
The Los Santos project reflects a wider industry interest in recovering valuable metals from secondary resources. For tungsten, supply can come from newly mined ore, existing mine inventories, production residues and recycled materials. Developing several supply routes can provide buyers with additional sources of material while making recovery technologies and processing capabilities an increasingly important part of the overall supply chain.
Material Quality Remains Important for Tungsten Buyers
For manufacturers purchasing tungsten materials, additional supply sources do not remove the need for strict material qualification. Chemical composition, purity, processing route, dimensional accuracy, inspection records and batch consistency remain important when tungsten products are used in demanding industrial applications. Suppliers with stable production and the ability to provide traceable quality documentation can help buyers evaluate material from different supply channels.
Tungsten Supply Is Expanding Beyond New Mine Development
The Almonty-Sandvik agreement shows how tungsten supply development can involve more than opening new mines. Reprocessing existing tailings provides another route for recovering tungsten and connecting previously generated mine material with current industrial demand. As companies continue to seek diversified sources of strategic metals, tailings recovery and recycling may become increasingly relevant alongside conventional mining and refining.
