YEONGWOL, Gangwon Province — With Almonty Korea Tungsten Corp. (AKTC) beginning tungsten production in Korea, the country is entering a new phase of industrial opportunity centered on the strategic mineral. That potential extends to artificial intelligence (AI), a transformative force driving a new industrial revolution marked by technological breakthroughs on an unprecedented scale. Lewis Black, president and CEO of global tungsten developer Almonty Industries, which runs the Korean subsidiary AKTC, believes that without the mineral, the ongoing AI revolution would not have been possible. He emphasized tungsten’s critical role in the production of chips and other hardware components that enable AI semiconductors to translate their designed software capabilities into real-world performance during a recent interview with The Korea Times at AKTC’s newly built tungsten ore processing plant in Yeongwol County, Gangwon Province, March 17. Tungsten gas technology uses tungsten hexafluoride, also known as WF6 — a key specialty gas used in semiconductor manufacturing for chemical vapor