Why Andrew Forrest Just Bought Into EQ Resources (ASX: EQR) — And What It Means for Australia's Tungsten Story

EQ Resources (ASX: EQR) shares jumped 34% on 20 July 2026 after it emerged that Andrew Forrest's private investment vehicle, Wonongarra, had acquired a 16.8% stake from outgoing backer Oaktree Capital Management in a deal worth roughly A$189.7 million. Here's what happened, why it matters, and what it signals about Australia's role in the global tungsten supply chain.

The stock that led the ASX on Monday

However, the most notable stocks on the ASX Monday were EQ Resources (ASX: EQR), whose shares went up by 34.09% to trade at A$0.295. This rally made the stock price increase by almost 269% in the year to date, which transformed a penny stock into an enterprise worth $1.52 billion.

The trigger came to light following the closing of trading on Friday, 17 July 2026, when Wonongarra, the private investment vehicle owned by mining mogul Andrew Forrest, took up 862.1 million shares and 35.6 million share options of EQ Resources from Oaktree Capital Management, the US-based private equity firm which has been supporting the company since 2023. This deal, which has been estimated at approximately A$189.7 million, is seen as one of the biggest single cornerstone investments made in the Australian critical minerals space in 2026.

In an announcement made on the ASX, EQ Resources revealed that there will be no impact on the strategy, management or day-to-day running of the company because of the change in ownership. This is the case despite the implications that such a development may have on the company in future.

Who bought in, and why it's not a takeover

The holding is not sufficient to qualify for mandatory takeover regulations in Australia, but it is sufficient for Forrest to be considered the largest shareholder of EQ Resources and thus wield significant influence on the future path of the business. The sale concludes Oaktree’s three-year tenure of having invested in EQ Resources during an important phase of growth of the business, which involved acquisition of the Barruecopardo tungsten mine in Spain and expansion of Mt Carbine project in Queensland.

Equities analysts have described this acquisition as an improvement of EQ Resources' shareholders base where a private equity investor exits with profits and is replaced by an experienced strategist within the industry who knows how to build companies from their early stage of development to a global scale.

Fortescue is a man whose success is built on the company he transformed from a young iron ore player into the largest exporter of iron ore through building long-term direct relationships with steel producers all over Asia. For many years now, he has been diversifying his activities in energy transition metals and critical minerals, and EQ Resources has become one of the notable projects of him.

Why tungsten, and why now

While tungsten hasn't been making many waves lately, things are going to get very interesting with regard to the element in 2026. This is because almost 80% of all global tungsten is being produced in China, with even more control over tungsten processing occurring there now compared to before. Specifically, in 2026, exports of ammonium paratungstate, an intermediate product used in creating hard metals and alloys, have fallen by 70% compared to 2024. Moreover, Beijing has introduced its official exporter whitelist, whereby only a limited number of officially sanctioned firms can export tungsten at all. As a result, prices for tungsten have skyrocketed worldwide, with major concern growing among the aerospace industry, defense, electronics, and industrial cutting tools industries due to tungsten's exceptional strength and heat resistance.

Here comes the bottom line: beginning February 2025, there have been clear indications of tightening export regulations for tungsten and strategic minerals. It is this scenario that has made EQ Resources evolve from a relatively unnoticed micro cap into a strategic player within a period of eighteen months. The corporation currently operates two of the larger tungsten mines in non-Chinese territories:

Mt Carbine (Queensland, Australia) — A facility that utilizes already existing tailing piles along with conducting open pit and underground mining, thereby allowing for faster and safer operation than a greenfield mine.

Barruecopardo (Spain) — An extensive open-pit mine was acquired by EQ Resources via the Saloro transaction. This is significant in terms of geographical diversification for EQ Resources because its customers will increasingly be pressured by their own governments to procure critical metals from domestic and allied sources.

Combined, these make EQ Resources one of the largest producers of tungsten outside Chinese influence – a unique position at the moment, given the efforts of Western governments, defense firms, and industrial companies to develop independent supply chains.

The numbers behind the re-rating

Forrest was not merely a spontaneous venture but rather followed up on actual achievements. According to the EQ Resources' quarterly update in the March quarter (Q3 FY26) released in April, the company generated around A$32.6 million of revenue in the quarter, of which A$19.8 million of cash was received. As of quarter end, the company had A$15.8 million of cash and additional A$15 million of receivables.

But perhaps even more critically, the company has been reducing leverage on its balance sheet by partly retiring and refinancing the last remaining €15 million of debt in Spain related to the Barruecopardo transaction. This shift from a highly leveraged developer into a cash-producing producer must have been what initially attracted Forrest’s interest in the company. The rise in the share price did not begin on the day of the Forrest announcement but had begun earlier due to the re-rating of the explorer-to-producer transition confirmed by the Wonongarra transaction.

What Forrest's involvement could mean next

But beyond the capital and the buzzword, Forrest possesses something intangible – a network of contacts within the mining industry, manufacturing sector, and government through his two-decade leadership of Fortescue. And the business model that he implemented at Fortescue, one that relied on using size and dependability to enter into offtake deals with customers for extended periods of time, could be considered an appropriate framework for EQ Resources.

Potential paths worth watching:

1. Offtake agreements with defence contractors, tooling manufacturers, or electronics firms seeking guaranteed non-Chinese supply.
   
2. Government-linked partnerships, given how central critical minerals security has become to Australian, US, and European industrial policy through 2026.
   
3. Further consolidation, if EQ Resources uses its improved balance sheet and higher share price as currency to acquire additional tungsten or adjacent critical-mineral assets.
   
4. Increased institutional interest, as a high-profile cornerstone investor often acts as a signal that draws in pension funds, sovereign wealth vehicles, and thematic critical-minerals funds that had previously overlooked the stock.

The risks investors should keep in mind

None of this makes EQ Resources a sure thing. A few things are worth flagging:

Concentration risk: Forrest's stake, while below takeover-trigger thresholds, gives him significant influence — good if strategic direction aligns with other shareholders, less good if it doesn't.

Commodity price dependence: much of the current tungsten price strength is tied directly to Chinese export policy, which could ease as quickly as it tightened if geopolitical dynamics shift.

Execution risk: EQ Resources is still scaling two operations across two continents; ramp-up costs and production targets both carry the usual risks associated with mining operations transitioning to full-scale output.

Valuation: a 269% year-to-date rally and a single-day 34% jump mean a large amount of good news is now priced in. Investors coming to the stock fresh are buying at a very different valuation to those who held it twelve months ago.

The bigger picture

Irrespective of what the future holds for EQ Resources in particular, the Forrest investment serves as a good indicator of the movement of capital in 2026, which flows away from speculatory exploration tales to businesses that have demonstrated their ability to create, generate income, and take down risks from their balance sheets, especially those in the commodities sector where China’s export strategy has caused genuine Western demand to emerge. The tungsten resource has long been an afterthought in the critical minerals conversation dominated by lithium and rare earths.

( Source : Market Analysis )