INSIGHT-South Korea hunts tungsten treasure in race for rare minerals

Caption Tungsten is illuminated with mineral light in a mine in Gangwon Province, South Korea. - Reuters

SANGDONG, South Korea:Blue tungsten winking from the walls of abandoned mine shafts, in a town that's seen better days, could be a catalyst for South Korea's bid to break China's dominance of critical minerals and stake its claim to the raw materials of the future.

The mine in Sangdong, 180 km southeast of Seoul, is being brought back from the dead to extract the rare metal that's found fresh value in the digital age in technologies ranging from phones and chips to electric vehicles and missiles.