AsemconnectVietnam - Masan High-Tech Materials (UPCoM: MSR) has just announced a strategic partnership with GB Innovation (GBI), a South Korean tungsten resource mining and development company.

Under the agreement, MSR's tungsten processing and chemical plant will process tungsten concentrate from GBI into Ammonium Paratungstate (APT) and tungsten oxide products. This long-term cooperation agreement combines a stable supply of concentrate from partners with a tightly designed processing fee mechanism.
The processing fee is determined according to a percentage of the APT price index published by Fastmarkets and is protected by a price floor mechanism, thereby limiting the risk of profit margin decline, improving the predictability of business results, and optimizing the operational efficiency of MSR's existing processing platform.
This partnership reflects a structural characteristic of the regional supply chain: although many countries possess tungsten resources at the mining stage, large-scale processing capacity outside of China remains very limited.
South Korea possesses tungsten resources at the mining stage, with GBI aiming for an output of approximately 200,000 tonnes of raw ore (ROM) per year, but needs large-scale processing capacity to transform domestic concentrates into higher value-added tungsten products for industrial production. MSR meets this need through an integrated platform capable of processing various types of concentrates with different impurity levels and characteristics, and processing them into high-purity tungsten chemical products.
For GBI, this partnership helps complete South Korea's tungsten supply chain outside of China, from mining to refined tungsten intermediate products for the domestic industry. Through the processing of GBI's tungsten concentrate into APT and tungsten oxide products in Vietnam, MSR provides a missing intermediate link between mining and downstream application industries such as defense, semiconductors, aerospace, automotive, specialty alloys, and high-tech manufacturing.
This partnership is particularly significant for South Korea's semiconductor industry. Tungsten is a crucial raw material for the production of tungsten hexafluoride (WF₆) – a key precursor used to create tungsten films in advanced semiconductor devices, including next-generation logic chips, DRAM memory, and 3D NAND. The recent shortage of high-purity tungsten has highlighted the vulnerability of semiconductor and chip manufacturers to disruptions in the tungsten supply chain.
Securing a stable supply of refined tungsten intermediate products through this partnership will help mitigate the risk of disruption to South Korea's semiconductor supply chain. As investment in AI infrastructure continues to drive demand for semiconductors and strategic materials, South Korea's challenge also reflects the growing global demand for large-scale tungsten processing capacity outside of China.
The demand for such collaborative models is increasing across the tungsten market outside of China. Many resource owners can develop ore mines, but few have access to large-scale, proven, and operational processing capacity outside of China.
MSR's platform in Vietnam helps address this gap by transforming concentrates from partners into higher-value-added tungsten intermediate products, enabling resource owners to move beyond the concentrate sales model, while providing downstream customers with a safer and more reliable tungsten material supply outside of China.
MSR's processing platform is bolstered by Vietnam's long-life resource reserves. According to the National Mineral Plan, the Nui Phao Expansion and Nui Chiem areas are estimated to have a potential of approximately 115 million tons of polymetallic tungsten resources, subject to necessary approvals, licenses, and authorizations from competent state authorities. Building on this resource base, concentrates from partners have become an increasingly important and highly efficient component of MSR's operational model. By combining ore from existing mines with concentrates from more than 20 mining and supply partners, MSR can improve the operational efficiency of its processing plant, enhance cost competitiveness, and support its plan to expand tungsten oxide processing capacity to over 8,000 tons per year.
"This partnership confirms that MSR's model of building a global strategic materials platform is on the right track. Resource owners increasingly need a reliable, large-scale processing partner outside of China, and Vietnam's MSR is that choice. By combining resources with long mining lifecycles, concentrates from partners and capabilities..."
N.Nga
Source: VITIC/Bao Tai chinh – Dau tu