Almonty Signs Long-Term Spanish Tungsten Concentrate Supply Agreement with Sandvik's WBH

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 17, Almonty Industries announced the signing of a long-term tungsten concentrate supply agreement with Wolfram Bergbau und Hütten AG (WBH), a subsidiary of the Sandvik Group, with feedstock sourced from the reprocessing of existing tailings at the Los Santos tungsten mine in western Spain. The agreement adopts a take-or-pay model, covering a minimum of approximately 1,720 tonnes of tungsten trioxide (WO₃) content, and includes a conditional one-time prepayment of US$3 million for the related offtake rights.

Los Santos is an open-pit scheelite skarn mine located approximately 50 kilometers south of Salamanca, Spain, and has been on care and maintenance since February 2020. The agreement was signed against the backdrop of the planned resumption of production at the mine's processing plant, with future tungsten concentrate supply to come primarily from the reprocessing of previously mined and processed tailings rather than new primary ore extraction. Almonty stated that through continuous testing and process trials, the company has improved WO₃ recovery levels in tailings reprocessing.

WBH has been part of the Sandvik Group since 2009 and operates a tungsten smelting and powder manufacturing facility in St. Martin im Sulmtal, Austria. The plant processes scheelite concentrate from its own Mittersill mine, purchased tungsten concentrate, and recycled tungsten feedstock, making it one of the few facilities outside Asia and Russia with fully integrated tungsten smelting and powder manufacturing capabilities. This long-term agreement will provide WBH with an additional traceable, non-Chinese tungsten feedstock source from within the EU.

Following the signing of the agreement, Almonty has secured partial product sales channels ahead of the Los Santos restart, while also obtaining customer financial support for the processing plant's resumption. Under the agreement, WBH will offtake tungsten concentrate produced from tailings reprocessing according to agreed mechanisms, with pricing linked to an index and subject to a price floor; both parties will also share in funding part of the asset restoration costs.

The project is currently at the stage of "long-term offtake agreement signed, processing plant restart preparation underway." Once production formally resumes, Los Santos will re-establish tungsten concentrate supply through tailings reprocessing, with the first products entering WBH's European tungsten smelting system under the long-term agreement.