EQ Resources shares (ASX: EQR) is the top performing stock on the ASX over the past 12 months, with a combination of geopolitical tailwinds, billionaire backing, and operational momentum transforming a once-overlooked tungsten miner into a genuine critical minerals contender.
The EQR share price’s 1,566% gain over the period is not a story built on hype alone, but it reflects a fundamental shift in how Western markets are pricing non-Chinese tungsten supply.
What Has Driven EQR Rally?
EQR shares are currently trading at A$0.50, on course for their third consecutive positive week, up 2.04% so far week to date. Twelve months ago, shares were trading at fractions of a cent, whilst today, the company commands a market cap that has earned it entry into the S&P/ASX 300 Index, a milestone that would have seemed implausible to most not long ago.
The single most dramatic trading session of the past year came in July, when billionaire Andrew Forrest’s private investment vehicle, Wonongarra Pty Ltd, disclosed a 16.8% cornerstone stake in the company. Shares surged more than 34% in a single day on that news alone, rising to 30 cents before continuing their upward trajectory toward the current A$0.50 level.
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The Forrest transaction involved the purchase of approximately 862.1 million shares and 35.6 million options from private equity group Oaktree Capital Management, in a deal valued at approximately A$190 million. Oaktree’s exit eliminated a significant source of market overhang, while Forrest’s entry provided the kind of institutional credibility that attracts a new tier of capital.
The stock’s RSI currently sits at 71.62, technically in overbought territory, though not at an extreme level that would typically signal an imminent reversal, with the stock having maintained levels above 80 for more than a week early in the year.
A Global Tungsten Deficit
To understand why EQR has performed as it has, it is necessary to understand what is happening in the global tungsten market. Tungsten is a critical industrial and defence metal, used in everything from cutting tools and armour-piercing ammunition to semiconductor manufacturing. China currently dominates global tungsten supply, accounting for the vast majority of mined output and refined processing capacity.
That dominance has become a geopolitical liability for Western governments. China’s imposition of export controls on critical minerals, including Ammonium Paratungstate (APT) has created a structural supply deficit for non-Chinese buyers. The situation has been further sharpened by a United States defence policy mandate, set to take effect on January 1, 2027, which will prohibit defence contractors from sourcing tungsten from China or Russia. That single policy change has placed Western-sourced tungsten producers in a category of strategic necessity rather than mere commodity preference.
EQR sits directly in the path of this structural shift. The company operates two producing assets at Mt Carbine in Queensland, Australia, and the Barruecopardo mine in Spain, giving it a rare dual-jurisdiction production base that spans two allied Western nations.
From Mine to Market
The most strategically significant development in EQR’s recent corporate history may be the binding agreement with Blue Moon Metals and The Elmet Group this month, centred on the Springer Tungsten Complex in Nevada. The deal secured EQR a 10% equity stake in a new joint venture established to restart and operate an APT processing facility on U.S. soil. Critically, the arrangement includes long-term concentrate supply allocations, meaning EQR can channel raw tungsten concentrate from its Australian and Spanish operations directly into North American refining infrastructure.
By inserting itself into the U.S. processing ecosystem ahead of the 2027 defence procurement deadline, EQR has moved from being a mining company that sells concentrate to being a participant in the Western tungsten supply chain from pit to product. For defence and technology buyers seeking to comply with incoming procurement rules, that kind of integrated supply relationship carries significant value.
On the operational side, EQR is executing a A$39 million expansion at Mt Carbine designed to double processing capacity from 1 million tonnes per annum to 2 Mtpa by the third quarter of FY2027. Monthly production targets have been set at 10,000 to 12,000 metric tonne units.
What Next?
EQR’s inclusion in the ASX 300 following the September rebalance added a structural demand dimension to the story. Index inclusion places a stock inside the mandatory portfolio construction universe for a wide range of institutional fund managers and triggers automated buying from ETFs and passive funds that track the benchmark. For a company of EQR’s size, the liquidity and visibility benefits of index membership are meaningful, and the inclusion reflects how dramatically the company’s market standing has changed over the course of the year.
The company has transformed itself from a speculative micro-cap into a critical minerals play with genuine strategic relevance in Western defence supply chains, and the market has priced that transformation accordingly. Whether the current valuation already prices in all of that opportunity, or whether there is more to come is the question that will be answered in time. For now, holders can be content with having the best ASX stock of the past 12 months in their portfolio.
