Adamera Minerals in Focus as Tungsten Supply Concerns Deepen

By Peter Kennedy

Chinese export restrictions combined with rising military spending has sent the price of tungsten soaring in recent months, a move that has kicked off a race to develop new supplies of the critical metal.

Almonty Industries [TSX-ALL, Nasdaq-ALM], after a 30-year hiatus, recently resumed production at its Sangdong mine in South Korea, which is poised to deliver 2,300 tonnes of tungsten concentrate annually.

Due to physical properties that include extreme hardness and the highest melting point of any metal, tungsten is a key component in armor-piercing projectiles such as bullets and missiles. It is also used to manufacture drills, saw blades and milling cutters.

But reduced stockpiles caused by war in Ukraine and the Middle East has helped to send the price of Ammonium Paratungstate (APT) soaring to US$3,180 per tonne unit from US$340 per tonne in early 2025.

“This is not a flash in the pan,’’ said Mark Kolebaba, President and CEO of Adamera Minerals Corp. [ADZ-TSXV, DDNFF-OTC], a company with tungsten assets in the U.S. (see details below). He believes higher prices are here to stay.

That has prompted the United States and its allies to try to find new sources of the metal outside of China which dominates the tungsten market, accounting for over 88% of global supply. The U.S. military, via the Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC), recently invited companies to submit proposals to boost domestic supplies of critical minerals, explicitly targeting tungsten.

However, industry officials point out that high quality tungsten deposits are rare in North America and timelines for permitting and developing mines worldwide are long.

In December, 2024, Fireweed Metals Corp., [FWZ-TSXV, FWEDF-OTCQB, 20F-FSE] said it has been awarded $22.5 million from the U.S. Department of Defense and up to $12.9 million from the Government of Canada in support of its critical minerals projects at Macmillan Pass, Yukon. With this funding, Fireweed said it will advance its Mactung tungsten project to a final investment decision. In a subsequent press release in March, 2026, the company said was launching an updated feasibility study at the 100%-owned Mactung project. A 2023 technical report said an updated mineral resource for Mactung stands at 51.5 million tonnes, indicated, at 0.73% WO3 and 12.2 million tonnes (inferred) at 0.59% W03. It is estimated that the potential exists for an exploration target at Mactung of between 2.5 million and 3.5 million tonnes at a grade of between 0.4 and 0.6% W03 in addition to the current mineral resources. These results make it the world’s largest high-grade tungsten deposit, the company has said.

American Tungsten Corp [TUNG-CSE, TUNGF-OTCQB, RK90-FSE] is currently conducting an exploration drill program and assessing the potential for re-start of underground tungsten mining operations at the IMA Mine in east central, Idaho. Between 1945 and 1957, the property produced approximately 199,449 tonne units of W03 and was subsequently explored for molybdenum and tungsten by various operators between 1960 and 2010.

The company has said the latest drill results provide continued confidence as it systematically moves to define a modern, mineable resource. Back in March, 2026, the company closed a $40 million bought deal private placement financing consisting of 14.3 million units priced at $2.80 per unit.  Net proceeds of the offering are expected to be used to advance exploration and development at the IMA Mine.

Adamera Minerals Corp. [ADZ-TSXV, DDNFF-OTC] CEO Mark Kolebaba says he believes that his company is exploring for the right metals at exactly the right time.

In an interview with Resource World, Kolebaba said Adamera is one of the very few companies in North America that can point to having known tungsten mineralization on its properties. Back in November, 2025, for example, Adamera announced a potentially new occurrence of tungsten mineralization at its Talisman Property in Washington State. Rock samples collected up to 720 metres south of the historic Talisman Tungsten Mine returned highly anomalous tungsten values ranging from 110 ppm to 2,600 ppm.

“Previously, Adamera’s exploration efforts at Talisman focused on high-grade copper and silver,’’ Kolebaba said. “The renewed emphasis on tungsten, a U.S. federally designated critical mineral, adds a valuable dimension to the project,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, in a press release on April 8, 2026, the company said results from a detailed ground magnetic survey deployed at the company’s Tungsten Ridge, property, which is also located in Washington State, have significantly expanded the property’s prospective skarn tungsten mineralization beyond historical underground mine workings.

“Old projects like Tungsten Ridge and Talisman Tungsten become new opportunities with the introduction of either new economics or modern exploration techniques,’’ said Kolebaba. “In this case we have both. We are applying modern exploration methods to these properties, at a time of severe global supply shortages and unprecedented tungsten prices,’’ he said. “We are perfectly positioned to capitalize on this rare convergence of geological potential and market demand.”

Adamera is advancing its two tungsten projects in Washington State in a bid to establish a secure uninterrupted domestic supply for U.S. markets, while also continuing to explore for high value-gold, silver and copper deposits in British Columbia. The company recently said it had identified a large-scale copper gold target on its 100%-owned South Hedley project, which is located between the historic Nickel Plate gold mine and active Copper Mountain mine in southern B.C.

The multi-metal strategy is led by Kolebaba, who was previously engaged in arctic diamond exploration in Nunavut, and Canada’s Northwest Territories, where he worked with BHP Billiton Ltd. [BHP-NYSE] and the legendary diamond explorer Charles Fipke. He was part of a team that discovered the first 120 kimberlites at the Ekati Diamond Mine and was responsible for the initial discovery of the Hope Bay Gold deposit in Nunavut.

Exploration at the tungsten properties is still in the early stages. At Tungsten Ridge, historical exploration focused almost exclusively on exposed outcrop, leaving vast areas obscured by shallow overburden untested. Adamera’s primary objective is now the systematic development of high-priority drill targets. It hopes to achieve that via the evaluation of the area of the known mine workings and a comprehensive soil sampling program.

In 2025, the company considered selling the Talisman Tungsten property. But due to the shift in the macroeconomic landscape for tungsten, the company elected instead to expand its tungsten holdings. Kolebaba said Talisman can be quickly advanced because it is close to infrastructure and the company’s operational base in Washington State. “Going forward our focus will be to rapidly advance both properties with field work expected to commence in April [2026].”

On April 28, 2026, Adamera shares were trading at 15 cents in a 52-week range of 19 cents and $0.05.