The Elmet Group Co., the parent company of Lewiston-based Elmet Technologies, has announced the launch of its initial public offering, or IPO, of 7.7 million shares of its common stock.

The IPO is expected to raise between $92 million and $107 million, with an expected valuation of between $12 and $14 a share. The company plans to grant the underwriters the option to purchase an additional 1.2 million shares, potentially raising another $14 million-$17 million.

Elmet intends to list its stock on the Nasdaq Composite index under the symbol ELMT.

Elmet Technologies was owned by Philips Lighting from 1929 until the early 2000s, with the Lewiston plant producing tungsten filament for lightbulbs as its primary product for 60 years.

With the shift to LED lighting, Philips sold Elmet to the management team and a former vice president of sales and marketing, Jack Jensen.

The company focused on two metals — tungsten and molybdenum — as the core elements around which the company based the majority of its products.

Elmet Technologies was acquired by Anania and Associates of Portland in 2015 and has made huge strides under the leadership of principal Peter Anania, acquiring competitor H.C. Starck Solutions Americas in November 2023, making it the largest U.S.-based producer of tungsten and molybdenum materials and products, with more than 400 employees in three states.

Elmet is one of only a few manufacturers in the country with the experience and machinery to take tungsten and molybdenum powder, which is semi-refined, and process it into wire, plate, sheet and foil, cubes and spheres. It does so by pressure rolling and heat treating it. The company is also making alloys from the metals, with the applications growing each year.

The Elmet plant has quietly undergone significant technical changes over the past few years, increasingly targeting defense, aerospace and the medical field.

Elmet supplied NASA with high-density tungsten heavy alloy materials produced in Lewiston for the Artemis II lunar mission, and previously supplied components for the Artemis I mission.

In 2024, Elmet was recognized for its 95 years of contributions to the state earning the 2023 Governor’s Award for Business Excellence.

Later that year Elmet entered into a $30 million agreement with an Australian mining company to secure a supply of tungsten, following China’s moves to limit or cut off sales of the metal. China is the world’s largest supplier of tungsten and Australia is the world’s second largest supplier.