Almonty Industries (ALM) said Tuesday it has begun a major drilling program at its Sangdong Molybdenum Project in South Korea to confirm potential reserves for future production.

The company said the program will include 26 drill holes totaling about 11,700 meters to re-examine mineralized structures identified in earlier work. The drilling is being accelerated in response to a shortage of molybdenum in South Korea, where the government has called on private companies to help secure supply, according to Almonty.

Almonty said it intends to update its technical report after the campaign and could move to production on an expedited basis. The company said it previously signed a supply agreement with SeAH M&S, a unit of SeAH Group, covering 100% of molybdenum output from the mine.

Molybdenum is used in aerospace, defense, nuclear energy, petrochemicals, semiconductors and renewable energy, the company said.