Resourceful, Responsible
diamond, while it is denser than steel and titanium, twice as hard as any steel grade, and has extremely high wear resistance.
Such properties translate into an estimated market value of $3.5 billion in 2017, according to statistics published by Global Market Insights.
Further, demand for tungsten carbide, the most common application segment, is forecast to grow solidly by 3.5 percent a year between 2019 and 2024. This is partly because the scrap can be recycled, which makes it an
extremely valuable alloy for all sorts of applications.
Asia Pacific represented the largest regional market for the global tungsten carbide market in 2018, a result of the growing demand for automotive, construction and metalworking industries in countries like China, India and Japan.
Indeed, Tungsten is utilised across a wide variety of industrial applications, as mining industry veteran Vu Hong explains: “This is an extremely hard mineral with the highest melting point
of all metals and a solid resistance to corrosion.
“Due to its unique intrinsic properties, it is ideally suited to the needs of all major heavy industries such as oil and gas, construction, hard metal tooling, energy, automotive and aviation. Tungsten is also an essential element in the steel industry, where its usage ranges from the production of stainless-steel alloys to superalloys.”
Having spent nearly two decades working for Vietnam’s Ministry of Water Resources and Electricity and the World Bank, Hong now serves as First Deputy General Director and Director of External Relations for Masan Resources, operator of the world’s largest tungsten mine (Nui Phao).
He joined the previous owner of the site in northern Vietnam in
2004, moving over to Masan postacquisition.
Aware of the impact developing such a large area of land would have on the surrounding community, Hong cites the opportunity to work with the community as a key reason for getting involved with the project 15 years ago.
“The development required the acquisition of around 700 hectares of land from local people in Dai Tu District in the Thai Nguyen Province, most of them being peasants and some being part of the Cao Lan ethnic minority group,” he explains.
“Of the roughly 3,000 affected families, nearly 2,000 needed to be displaced out of the project site. I was therefore determined that this process was enacted properly, not only adhering to the national policies of the Vietnam government on land acquisition, resettlement and assistance, but also the safeguarding policies of the World Bank.”