The Pentagon will take a near-20% stake in a US producer of tungsten — a metal used in military hardware — in a move that expands the Trump administration’s push to secure critical minerals supplies outside China. The $450 million investment in the Elmet Group Co. will be used to increase tungsten manufacturing in the US, while boosting the company’s long-term access to feedstock for its plants, Elmet said on Monday. Its shares jumped as much as 55%.

President Donald Trump has led a US effort to ease China’s stranglehold on supplies across a range of strategic commodities, especially those that are critical for the defense industry. Prices for tungsten — a super-dense material used in armor-piercing weaponry — have risen more than eightfold since China tightened controls on exports in early 2025.

"Tungsten is essential to the systems that protect American warfighters and sustain deterrence, and this investment helps secure a domestic processing capability the United States cannot afford to leave exposed," George K. Kollitides II, director of the economic defense unit at the Department of Defense, said in a statement. The Elmet agreement adds to a string of White House deals with American miners or refiners, kickstarted last year by a landmark $400 million investment by the Pentagon in rare earths champion MP Materials Corp. Other targets include USA Rare Earth Inc., Canada’s Lithium Americas Corp. and mine developer Trilogy Metals Inc.

The investment in Elmet will be made through a redeemable preferred-equity structure and will give the Defense Department a 19.9% stake, the company said. The Pentagon will have the right to appoint an independent director to Elmet’s board of directors. Tighter supplies of tungsten materials have sparked a global scramble to secure alternative sources for both the long and short term.