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A mining company working to bring tungsten out of northern Portugal has taken another step toward securing the capital it needs to get there. Allied Critical Metals Inc. (OTCQB: ACMIF, CSE: ACM) said this week that it is continuing to progress toward closing the second portion of a $25 million equity financing round, a milestone that matters for a company racing to bring a new source of tungsten online outside of China.
The update builds on a plan first laid out in April. Back then, Allied outlined a $25 million private placement of common shares priced at $2.05 each, paired with a separate $15 million project financing facility. Together, the two pieces were meant to fund the company through drilling, permitting, and the early stages of building a processing plant. The second tranche now moving toward completion covers $15 million of that equity total.
Two investors are involved in this round. One is a strategic investor that already holds a stake in Allied and has worked with the company before. The other is new to the register. According to the company, the existing investor has agreed to backstop the new investor’s commitment, meaning it will step in to cover the amount if the newcomer’s participation falls through. That kind of arrangement often signals a level of confidence from the incumbent investor, since it is effectively underwriting a commitment on someone else’s behalf.
Roy Bonnell, the company’s chief executive, said the closing follows a substantial period of due diligence by both investors, the kind of scrutiny that typically precedes a large capital commitment in the mining sector. He noted that Allied already has the funding in place to complete a 20,000 metre drilling program at its Borralha project and has begun ordering long lead time equipment for a planned pilot plant at its Vila Verde site. Long lead items, in mining terms, are equipment or components that can take many months to manufacture and deliver, so ordering them early is often a sign that a company expects to move forward on schedule.
Borralha is the centerpiece of Allied’s business. Located in northern Portugal, it is considered one of the largest undeveloped tungsten deposits in the European Union. The project has already received a favorable environmental impact declaration from Portuguese regulators, a step that can take years and often determines whether a mining project ever gets built. Vila Verde, a smaller and earlier stage property nearby, adds further exploration potential in the same region.
Tungsten is not a household name the way lithium or copper are, but it plays an outsized role in modern manufacturing. The metal is extremely dense and heat resistant, which makes it essential in cutting tools, aerospace components, munitions, and electronics. Both the United States and the European Union have classified it as a critical raw material, largely because so little of it comes from anywhere outside a small handful of countries. China, Russia, and North Korea together account for roughly 87% of global tungsten supply and reserves, according to figures cited by Allied, a concentration that has drawn increasing attention from Western governments looking to diversify their supply chains.
That geopolitical backdrop is part of why a project like Borralha draws interest from strategic investors rather than purely financial ones. A European source of tungsten, developed under EU environmental standards, offers something that is currently in short supply: a supply chain that does not run through Beijing, Moscow, or Pyongyang. Whether Allied can turn that advantage into an operating mine will depend on execution over the coming years, but the closing of this financing tranche removes one more obstacle from the path.
