What's up with tungsten - other than price?

Ask any fly tier about what's happening with tungsten beads, and they will give you an answer that might include expletives.  The price for a 20 pack of beads using this dense, non-toxic material has risen almost 220 percent in the past year.  This is in response to the price of the mineral itself rising from an historical average of about $750 per metric ton (up until March  2025) to a peak of $2800 in February of this year.

For fly anglers, the use of tungsten beads for beadhead flies allows them to sink quickly, yet maintain a smaller profile.  This is critical when fishing moving waters, where the trout,  smallmouth or other species might hold to the bottom.  Hundreds of popular patterns like the Zebra midge, Perdigon, Countach, and Rio Bandito were originated with tungsten beads.  Countless brass beadhead patterns now use tungsten when needed for deeper water use.  

Tungsten is twice as dense as lead, and 2.4 times as dense as brass.  Lead wire was the top material for constructing "deep flies" for decades but because of restrictions across many waters in the U.S. and elsewhere, lost favor.  In addition, the rise of beadhead flies resulted in use of harder materials like brass and tungsten.  There are other non-toxic alternatives, like bismuth alloys, but they can be equally expensive.  

So what's really happening with tungsten?  Tungsten has the highest melting point of any metal, and is critical for military and aerospace applications, and in particular, for the use of electronics in AI data centers.  And yet, nearly 80 percent of the world's supply comes from China.  Not because the rest of the planet has so little and China has so much, but because it was always much cheaper to buy from companies in that country than to mine it domestically.  In fact, the US has not mined tungsten since 2015.

This fact has not escaped the Chinese.  In the race for AI dominancy, their government has now capped the export of this valuable mineral - thus resulting in worldwide shortage and soaring commodity prices.

Realizing the strategic need for more domestic tungsten production, yesterday the Department of War announced a $450 million investment in The Elmet Group, the only US-owned producer of tungsten and molybdenum materials.  The investment is expected to reopen tungsten mines in Nevada, as well as create high paying manufacturing and tech jobs in Michigan and Maine.  

In response to yesterday's news, tungsten prices fell 17 percent.  But before fly tiers rejoice over possible lower prices, they should remember that one of their favorite materials is in direct competition with the AI Data Center market.  It's doubtful we'll see (somewhat) cheap tungsten beads anytime in the near future.  

With that in mind, tiers might want to recycle the beads off of worn flies rather than chunk the entire fly into the trash can.