Pentagon Puts $450 Million Into US Tungsten

The Department of War’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy announced Monday that it’s investing $450 million in The Elmet Group, a U.S.-owned, totally built-in producer of tungsten and molybdenum supplies and parts. The War Department’s Economic Defense Unit, created in April 2026, executed the investment and makes use of private-sector financial consultants to counter the financial affect of international adversaries. It has three core capabilities:

In a assertion, Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy Mike Cadenazzi said, “This investment reflects the Department’s commitment to rebuilding critical industrial capacity in the United States. Expanding domestic tungsten processing will strengthen supply chain resilience, support high-quality manufacturing jobs, and reinforce the production base behind essential defense systems.”

Tungsten is a foundational protection materials used in missiles, munitions, aerospace, propulsion, naval, undersea, electronics, and industrial manufacturing functions. This investment by DOW will secure a home provide of tungsten, an aspect we at present rely on China for.

What’s Going On?

The Trump administration is finally doing what has been ignored for many years: guaranteeing vital protection supplies will not be subject to the whims of our adversaries. Rare earths and strategic supplies have stopped being a lead story in the media, but they have not stopped being a very important national curiosity. 

When President Trump got here into workplace, we relied upon Russia and China for our literal ammunition provide; see INSANE: The US Relies on China and Russia for Its Ammunition Supply – RedState. Now, we’re on our means to self-sufficiency; see Alaska Now Challenging China on Critical Antimony Supply – RedState.

The rare-earth state of affairs reached a breaking level in October 2025 when China announced export controls on all uncommon earths refined in China. The backside line was that any nation that bought uncommon earths from China surrendered to China the flexibility to resell the minerals freely or to promote merchandise containing them; Chinese Economic Coercion, Rare Earth Minerals, and Tariffs: Decouple Now or Never – RedState and America’s Strategic Blind Spot: Rare Earths and China – RedState.

The Trump administration took the risk critically. It created a strategic reserve of uncooked supplies; see Project Vault: Trump’s New $12 Billion Plan to Shield U.S. From China Mineral Dominance – RedState. More importantly, it began investing immediately in corporations (see Energy Dept. Now Betting $134M on Recycling Rare Earth Minerals to Shore Up Domestic Reserves – RedState) that extract uncommon earths; see From Lithium to Rare Earths, New U.S. Technologies Threaten China’s Toxic Grip on Critical Minerals – RedState.

Even though direct U.S. investment conjures photos of socialism and industrial coverage for libertarians, it’s the only means to break China’s monopoly. China’s strategy has been to watch for promising applied sciences that threaten its monopoly, then dump large quantities of the focused materials on the open market. This depresses the price. The upstart is all of a sudden working at a loss for the foreseeable future. It loses buyers and goes stomach up. Then China raises the costs. The U.S., having an equity stake in the businesses, ensures it could’t be put out of business by predatory Chinese commerce practices.

About the deal

The deal is extremely important. The Elmet Group will increase home manufacturing, mining, processing, and uncooked materials provide. Mining operations will happen in Maine, Michigan, and Ohio. Significantly, $150 million is earmarked to reopen the Springer Tungsten Complex in Nevada. This deserted tungsten operation has an estimated two million tons of tungsten ore. 

The company has also secured a US Defense Logistics Agency contract value up to US$2 billion to help rebuild the National Defense Stockpile. This half of the deal prevents China from driving The Elmet Group out of business by locking in a income stream.

Getting real

Ralph Waldo Emerson is credited with saying, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” If that is the case, then that explicit hobgoblin was working his butt off today. The guys from the Cato Institute took beneficial time out of beating the drum for open borders and amnesty for all, only to be shocked when the U.S. authorities took motion to shield the nation from international enemies. I might post some of the feedback, but most of them have blocked me. This would qualify as a abstract, though I do not know if the account is affiliated with Cato.

FMA Following Marx Again, what may probably go flawed, again? pic.twitter.com/bNl7lf7yjh

— Justin Havens (@JustinHavens10) September 15, 2026

Even though Cato’s VP says this is 33 offers, professionals put the quantity greater. The worth could also be as a lot as $28 billion.

To be clear, none of these offers contain the U.S. authorities taking a majority stake in the enterprise. Typically, they contain equity, warrants, convertible securities, and golden shares. The latter offers the federal government a major say, if not an outright veto, in company governance.

The U.S. federal authorities has turn into one of the more lively equity buyers in strategic industries, and it has performed so with remarkably little fanfare. Since January 2025, Washington has announced roughly $27.6bn across 37 offers involving equity or quasi-equity stakes in public and personal corporations. The stakes span semiconductors, vital minerals, quantum computing and power, with the first two sectors alone accounting for more than 80 p.c of whole deal worth.

The offers cowl semiconductors and superior computing; vital minerals extraction and processing; and metal, nuclear, and protection systems. And, of course, the most well-known deal was the Pentagon shopping for Venezuela’s oil output: see Trump’s Oil Deal Is the Monroe Doctrine With a Term Sheet: 100-Year Rights and Beijing Locked Out – RedState.

Bottom line

The concept that we are able to rely on the “free market,” such as it’s, to keep the nation’s provide of strategic, warfighting supplies secure when about 80 p.c of those supplies come from our two major potential enemies is nonsense. After many years of sloth and neglect, the administration has chosen to guarantee self-sufficiency by requiring American corporations to produce those supplies. The fact that Cato and libertarians, in normal, are torqued over that choice not only exhibits that it’s right but makes it a lot sweeter.

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