Journalist's Note: The Era Logic Behind This Rare Metal Taking Center Stage

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 7—Title: A Reporter’s Notebook: The Logic of the Era When This Rare Metal Takes the “Front Seat”

By a reporter from Xinhua News Agency, Zhang Xinxin

According to Wind data, on April 3, the average price of scheelite concentrate was 958k yuan per ton, an increase of nearly 600% compared with the beginning of April 2025. In the same period, the gold price rose by about 38%.

Tungsten—this metal that had long remained in the corner—is now, thanks to its extremely high hardness and wear resistance, riding the wave of new energy, AI, and aerospace, leaping into the ranks of a new “top star,” taking the “front seat” in the ordering of rare metals.

The value of rare metals is always deeply linked to strategic industrial demand as the times evolve, dynamically changing with adjustments to global industrial structures and shifts in economic and trade trends.

More than a decade ago, when people talked about strategic industries, their attention often focused on fields such as steel, petrochemicals, and equipment manufacturing. At that time, as China was known as the “world’s factory,” the vast consumption involved in processing and manufacturing made bulk commodities like iron, copper, and aluminum the unquestioned main characters.

When the “new three” became China’s new business card in manufacturing, the logic of strategic industries quietly changed: new energy caught fire, and lithium transformed from an “additive” for ceramics and glass into the core raw material for power batteries, earning the nickname “white petroleum”; with the combined pull of wind power and electric vehicles, rare-earth permanent magnet materials became extremely hot… Once the industry’s boom shifted, the elements pushed to the center stage of the market also changed accordingly.

Today, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is sweeping in. Emerging industries and future industries such as AI, semiconductors, and commercial space are accelerating, and multiple key elements are ushering in new opportunities for development.

Take tungsten, for example—

In high-end manufacturing, it is an important material for machine tool cutting tools and precision molds, directly determining the accuracy and service life of industrial machine tools; in semiconductor manufacturing, it is an indispensable material for advanced-process chips; in the field of controllable nuclear fusion’s “artificial sun,” tungsten, with its stability in extreme environments, has carved out an entirely new incremental market…

It can be said that with every iteration of industrial development, the importance of elements is often rewritten. What was once just an ordinary raw material may become a strategic resource today; even traditional mineral resources that once looked endlessly promising may gradually move to the second tier as technology transitions.

As industrial development continuously reshapes the value of resources, a country’s resource endowment also determines the height of its industrial growth and its ability to withstand pressure.

From new energy and new materials to high-end equipment—each time the industry makes a breakthrough, it cannot be done without backing from key minerals and rare metals—

Some battery companies no longer limit themselves to negotiating orders in offices; instead, they move upstream into mines. Some vehicle manufacturers directly sign long-term supply agreements with mining companies. Even some countries have begun to treat key minerals as “new oil” for reserves… In the end, these are all aimed at firmly keeping key resources in their own hands.

A stable capability for resource acquisition is the basic foundation for supply-chain security, and the level of advanced resource processing is also a key factor in enhancing competitiveness.

Without independent leading abilities in processing, refining, and purifying, raw-material advantages are hard to turn into industrial advantages. Without an efficient closed-loop system for recycling and reuse, the supply chain cannot achieve long-term, sustainable development. Today, the ability to control resources, the level of processing, and the capacity for recycling and reuse together form the underlying support for industrial competition.

For a major country, it must not only stabilize bulk minerals needed for upgrading traditional industries, but also build a secure and controllable supply chain for key minerals to support new industries. It must not only have resources, but also turn resource advantages into technology advantages, cost advantages, and advantages in sustainable development. Only then can the industrial system be more resilient to risks and more robust.

Which metal will take the “front seat” in the future is yet to be known, but what is certain is this: by firmly adhering to the principle of securing development with resources as the foundation, technology as the core, and the chain as the shield, industrial development can progress steadily and go far. (End)