Tungsten is a metal that is critical to modern life, but until now it has largely remained below the investment radar. However, when a legendary investor such as Warren Buffet- or at least a firm in which he has major stakes- invests in a tungsten project, the metal is bound to become a subject of growing interest.

Last month, Woulfe Mining inked a deal with International Metalworking Companies (IMC), a member of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. The companies agreed to create a tungsten pipeline in South Korea.

The deal raised questions as to who has tungsten in their portfolio and what opportunities they see in the metal.

According to an investment note provided by Christopher Ecclestone, Principal and mining strategist at Hallgarten & Company, tungsten has long been a metal of interest to the cognoscenti. And though the metal has not attracted the interest of broader portfolio investors, heavyweight trading houses have started to circle around players of merit.

Tungsten is more than just an extremely hard metal. It is one around which modern life revolves, and in many of the applications for which it is used, there is no substitute.

"If you are going to work with steel in almost any shape, then you need tungsten to machine it," said Nick Smith, Manager of Investor Relations at Woulfe Mining. "Without tungsten western manufacturing comes to an end. You are not working with steel or metal without tungsten. There’s no global mining unless you have tungsten tip drills."

Tungsten has a wide range of applications across many industries, including aviation, electronics, and medicine. But its role in making carbide-cutting tools is one of the ones that is most widely recognized.

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In TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) welding, an arc is drawn between a non-consumable tungsten electrode and the work piece. The electrode, the arc and the weld pool are protected from the atmosphere with an inert shielding gas. For manual welding the hardfacing material is in the form of a rod. Advantages of the TIG process include simple manual operation and good control of the welding arc. The process can also be mechanised, in which case a manipulator is used to move the work piece in relation to the welding torch and the hardfacing rod.

Rods are also used for hardfacing with the Oxy Acetylene welding process. With the correct operation, a very low level of iron dilution can be achieved in the overlay.
Benefits of TIG Welding:
• Manual Operation
• Can Be Mechanised
• Low Dilution

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A specially designed Oxy Acetylene torch is used for powder welding. The work piece is heated with the torch. The powder is introduced into the gas stream from the integral powder hopper and then transferred to the work piece through a flame.

This process is similar to the Oxy Acetylene process with the exception that the hardfacing takes place at lower temperatures. This minimises oxidation and distortion of the work piece ad enables easy surfacing of edges.

Benefits of Powder welding are:
• Low Dilution
• Easy Application
• Low Distortion
• Ideal for Edge Building 

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In this process an arc is drawn between a coated consumable electrode and the work piece. The metallic core-wire is melted by the arc and is transferred to the weld pool as molten drops. The electrode coating also melts to form a gas shield around the arc and the weld pool as well as slag on the surface of the weld pool, thus protecting the cooling weld pool from the atmosphere. The slag must be removed after each layer.

Manual Metal Arc welding is still a widely used hardfacing process. Due to the low cost of the equipment, the low operating costs of the process and the ease of transporting the equipment, this flexible process is ideally suited to repair work.

Benefits of MMA Welding are:
Flexible
Low Cost
Mobile
Ideal for Repairs 

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