Insight - South Korea hunts tungsten in race for raw minerals

“Why reopen it now after 30 years? Because it means sovereignty over natural resources,” said Lee Dong-seob, vice president of mine owner Almonty Korea Tungsten Corp.“Resources have become weapons and strategic assets.” - File pic - Tungsten. - Reuters

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, 180km south-east 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 (EVs) and missiles.