In Episode 306 of Cliff’s Notes, Cliff sits down with the person who knows the tungsten industry better than almost anyone alive — his father, Steve Nance, founder of Tungco. This episode is equal parts family history, industry origin story, and one of the most candid assessments of the US-China critical minerals standoff you’ll find anywhere.
How Tungco Started — and How Steve Met Nan
Tungco’s first trade show appearance was at the ISRI convention in New Orleans in 2005. Three people. A booth. No game plan until the plane ride there, when the team decided to fill a borrowed wine glass with tungsten ink pen pellets and run a guessing contest. They counted out a thousand pellets, handed out Pro-V golf balls as the prize, and collected business cards.
Steve met his future wife Nan that day. She stopped at the booth, dropped her entry in the bucket — and Steve fished it out, told the team he had to go to the bathroom, and went after her. He never found her that day. A few weeks later, with business taking him to California, he made the call. They met in April 2005 and were married in September. Episode 306 was recorded on April 15th — the anniversary of the day they met.
The Tungsten Cold War: A Founder’s Honest Take
The second half of the episode is the one every person in the tungsten and critical minerals industry needs to hear. Steve has been to China many times, built relationships there, and has watched the tungsten supply picture shift over a career that spans decades. His read on where things stand:
- China controls roughly 80% of global tungsten concentrates. That’s not a temporary condition — it’s a structural reality built over generations.
- Western mines have tried repeatedly. The Bishop Mine in California, mines in Utah and Nevada, two attempts in Canada. Every time, the economics collapse — partly regulation and cost, but mainly predatory pricing from China making it unviable.
- The critical minerals vault and a regulated price floor represent a real chance to change that equation for the first time. If the US government can hold a stable floor that prevents Chinese dumping, Western mining becomes viable.
- Steve’s honest answer on whether the US can win the long race: if both countries continue their current trajectories — US debt trajectory, Chinese strategic discipline — China becomes the dominant economic superpower. That’s not pessimism, it’s a clear-eyed read from someone who has been watching this longer than most.
- The new cold war is being fought on critical metals. Nobody’s firing a shot. No nuclear threat. But control of tungsten, and the other materials that make modern life run, is the battlefield.
