Ruffled tungsten feathers

By CEO and former bond trader Lewis Black’s own admission Almonty Industries ruffled a few feathers with their entry into the tungsten market six years ago.

Almonty acquired the former Berault tungsten mining and processing operations at Panasqueira, Portugal before selling it on in 2008 to Japanese metals conglomerate Sojitz for a price roughly 20 times earnings – a thirty fold return on investment in three years, according to company figures.

Now the mysterious Almonty are back and it seems intent on doing it all again by applying their business formula to another seemingly distressed project, this time at Los Santos in western Spain, where not too many have given them a chance.

While not too much is known about the company and how they came to raise money so easily in the first place for projects, comparisons between Black and former Chelsea and now Real Madrid football boss Jose Mourinho are easily drawn.

Does Black woo the press with sultry, latin charm? Well… No. But Outspoken? Yes, Absolutely.

“We became astute in tungsten fairly quickly, know how to value-add a project and manage it correctly. We are not terribly popular,” Black told Metal-Pages this week.

Like Mourinho, the self-proclaimed ‘special one’, who started in football as an English translator, Almonty come from outside the main sphere of activity. They both gained their first ‘on-field’ success in Portugal before moving on to bigger challenges in Spain.

Despite currently leading the Spanish league table, many in football predicted Jose Mourinho had bitten off more than he can chew at Real Madrid, particularly given opposition from the mighty Barcelona.

Will the same eventually be said about Almonty’s Spanish adventure? Time will tell.

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Almonty, Berault tungsten mining, Los Santos, Sojitz, Tungsten