00:00This metal can tell us a lot about war, or at least its price can.
00:04I went to the Dolphin Tungsten Mine on a remote island in Tasmania
00:07to see how the metal is faring during a time of global unrest.
00:11Tungsten is one of the densest metals there is. It's about as dense as gold.
00:15That makes it very useful for the tungsten carbide drill bits that you'd find on a household drill,
00:20but also for weaponry. Tungsten-tipped shells and artillery.
00:25Because of that, its fortunes have risen and fallen along with every major conflict.
00:29Two world wars, Korea and Vietnam, and now Ukraine and Iran.
00:33But a large part of the recent increase is due to export controls from a single country.
00:37China produces about 80% of the world's tungsten.
00:40And that's a concern given how critical it is as a strategic and military metal.
00:45The people at this mine here in Tasmania are hoping to be some of the first to change that.
00:50Tungsten is a tiny market. About 80,000 metric tons are produced each year,
00:54compared to 23 million tons of copper and 2.6 billion tons of iron ore.
00:59All of the tungsten dug since the start of Covid could fit in a cube that would sit within a
01:03baseball diamond.
01:04Because it's so dense, that cube would weigh as much as the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.
01:09This pit behind me has been mined for more than a century.
01:12It is opened and closed pretty much every time a major global war has begun.
01:17And work here is as busy as it's been now in 35 years.
01:21After its process, tungsten turns into a sandy grey powder known as concentrate.
01:26The Dolphin Mine sends out about half a dozen shipping containers of it every month.
01:29Each is worth about $2 million at current prices.
01:32This is the entrance to the underground mine.
01:35It was abandoned in 1990.
01:36Where I am right now is about 80 metres below sea level.
01:40And if you'd come here 10 years ago, I would be below 50 metres of water.
01:43That pit goes down another 200 metres below the ground.
01:46But it took decades for the mine to get where it is.
01:49Investors wrongly believed that future wars would be fought with microchips and satellites,
01:53not weapons made of tungsten.
01:55And the idea that China controlled the market spooked them even more.
01:58But ceding so much control over such a crucial element was catastrophically short-sighted.
02:03When global tensions are rising, democratic governments don't want a material like this
02:07to be mainly in the hands of China, Russia and North Korea.
02:11But that's the situation the US and its allies are in after decades of neglect.
02:16And it has to change.
02:17Australia's Dolphin Mine is a first step.
02:19Australia while oftenifer, the name of India is my 12th century
02:19which allows long-term support that, the use of it at the national...
02:20….
02:20The programme pani aqui,Śoolmez and Marine ganz X baik Kuzab
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