National Wealth Fund puts £36M into Tungsten West to restart Devon mine
What's the deal? The UK's National Wealth FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is making a £36 million equity investment in Tungsten WestDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, part of a broader financing of up to £71 million to restart the Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine near Plymouth. The remaining sum is up to £35 million in lending, covering construction, commissioning, and processing costs.
What's the endgame? Hemerdon is one of the world's largest tungsten resources, a strategic asset that Tungsten West wants running at full-scale production by the first quarter of 2027. The company says the site benefits from existing infrastructure and a previously operating mine, giving it a shorter route to production.
Why now? Recent export controls have sharpened the case for diversifying supply of tungsten, a critical mineral used in defence, aerospace, next-generation energy, and electronics. The deal also gives the UK government an exclusive negotiation period for the right to procure up to 50% of Hemerdon's tungsten production, with the offtake agreement negotiated separately.
By the numbers: The project is expected to support around 350 direct jobs once fully operational. It builds on the Fund's recent investment in Cornish MetalsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, part of an effort to develop a critical minerals cluster in the South West.
"In Hemerdon, the UK has one of the largest deposits of tungsten in the world right on our doorstep," said Oliver Holbourn, chief executive officer of the National Wealth Fund. Tungsten West chief executive officer Jeff Court called the site "a world class, low cost and long-life tungsten and tin resource in the UK."
The signal: The equity investment ranks among the larger post-IPO equity rounds in UK energy over the past four years, sitting in the 90th percentile across 292 comparable deals. It reflects a wider push to reindustrialise Britain and secure sovereign supply chains for minerals that underpin defence and clean energy.
Read more: nationalwealthfund.org.uk
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
