The Current Status and Securing Strategies of Core Mineral Tungsten Resources

Abstract

Tungsten is a resource that is widely used as a material for cemented carbide and special steel owing to its characteristics as a high-melting-point metal with excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, strong wear resistance and corrosion resistance, and low high-temperature thermal expansion coefficient. Demand is expected to increase as high-tech industries, such as robotics and aerospace engineering, develop in the current era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Tungsten minerals with economic development value are scheelite and wolframite, and approximately 73% exist in China, Austria, and Russia, while some are also buried in Sangdong mine, Korea. The interest in securing the resources and the processing technology development of tungsten should be constant, as the domestic supply is totally dependent on imports.