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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Energy Metal News News Commentary - On January 1, 2027, the U.S. Department of War loses the ability to buy tungsten mined, refined or produced in China, Russia, North Korea or Iran. China supplies most of the world's tungsten, the United States has no operating commercial tungsten mine, and the countdown now runs about 15 months. Nevada, the state that already anchors America's gold output, is where some of the earliest answers are being drilled out, and explorers across the state are turning this year's field data into drill targets. Companies mentioned in today's commentary include: Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) (FRA: 4K2), SSR Mining Inc. (Nasdaq: SSRM), i-80 Gold Corp. (NYSE: IAUX), Integra Resources Corp. (NYSE American: ITRG), and Hudbay Minerals Inc. (NYSE: HBM).
A Deadline Written Into Procurement Rules
Most supply-chain policy moves slowly. This one has a date. DFARS , the defense acquisition clause that restricts specialty metals from covered countries, reaches tungsten and tungsten heavy alloys from January 1, 2027, from the mine through to finished metal. For defense primes and their suppliers, that means qualifying new sources within the next five quarters.
The market is already pricing the squeeze. China accounted for roughly 67,000 tonnes of the world's estimated 85,000 tonnes of mine output in 2025 and has named just 15 companies permitted to export tungsten for 2026 and 2027. Fastmarkets assessed tungsten concentrate at $750 to $850 per metric tonne unit in January; since late May the assessment has been $2,500 to $2,800.
None of that creates a mine overnight. A tungsten deposit has to be found, drilled, defined and permitted before it can supply anyone. That is why the early stages of exploration, the soil lines and geophysical models that come before the first drill hole, are drawing attention in historical tungsten districts that went quiet decades ago.
Two New Anomalies Next to a Past-Producing Mine
Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) (FRA: 4K2) has reported results from the first systematic soil sampling ever completed at its White Star Tungsten Project in Elko County, Nevada. The 253-sample survey, analysed by ALS Global using lithium borate fusion, defined two discrete tungsten-in-soil anomalies and returned a peak value of 2,230 ppm tungsten, or 0.28% WO₃.
The North Zone is the larger of the two: 15 anomalous samples across approximately 215 by 240 metres, peaking at 156 ppm tungsten, developed over the contact between quartz monzonite and tactite, the host setting for tungsten skarns. The zone contains a rock-chip sample that returned 0.126% WO₃, and the Company notes there is no recorded historical activity in that area. The South Zone, about 700 metres south, holds the 0.28% WO₃ peak and five anomalous samples across approximately 135 by 95 metres, on the same geological horizon that hosts the past-producing Mission Cross mine just to the north.
The analytical method matters for a metal like tungsten. All samples were run for 32 elements by lithium borate fusion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, which the Company chose because tungsten is refractory and partial digestions can under-report tungsten hosted in scheelite and wolframite. Field duplicates were inserted at roughly one in 30 samples, alongside the laboratory's own reference materials, blanks and duplicates.
"Deploying the same systematic approach to exploration at White Star as we did at Rowland has defined two excellent anomalous zones," said Blake Morgan, CEO and President of Western Star. "This geochemistry points to tungsten-bearing rock sitting at or very near surface. That is exactly the kind of target our sequential approach is built to find, and it takes both Nevada properties into drill planning together."
Four Targets, One District
White Star completes a 568-sample program across the Company's consolidated Nevada footprint. In September, Western Star reported Phase 2 soil results from the neighbouring Rowland Tungsten Property, where a peak of 4,240 ppm tungsten (0.53% WO₃) came from untested ground about 250 metres from the historical workings. Rowland Main and Northern Zone B at Rowland, and the North and South Zones at White Star, give the district four tungsten-in-soil anomalies.
Each sits in a different geophysical setting. The Company's three-dimensional magnetic inversion, announced in August, modelled buried intrusive bodies and roughly 25 kilometres of fault structures interpreted as fluid pathways. Northern Zone B at Rowland lies within a modelled intrusive; White Star's North Zone sits near one, beside a magnetic-high lineament; the South Zone lies about 800 metres outside the modelled intrusive in a magnetic-low lineament. The Company says it will use soil geochemistry to keep vectoring toward mineralized zones, and that infill sampling around lower-level anomalies may uncover more.
What Comes Next
Western Star plans to infill the key target zones at 25 metre spacing, extend to the east where the White Star anomaly remains open, sample further along the prospective horizon, and select drill pad locations to test all four zones at depth. In New Mexico, the Company has also outlined a planned 17-hole, approximately 1,850 metre drill program at its Eagle Point tungsten project, subject to finalizing permitting and logistics. The August field program there identified scheelite-bearing skarn along a granite-limestone contact dipping at about 80 degrees, and assays from its 23 samples are pending.
The risks are those of any early-stage explorer. Western Star has no current mineral resource on any property. Soil anomalies are targets, not discoveries, and the highest values are selective. Drilling at the Nevada properties has not yet been permitted or scheduled, and the Company will need further financing, which may be dilutive.
Nevada's Wider Drill Pipeline
Western Star is working at the earliest end of a state that is busy at every stage. i-80 Gold Corp. (NYSE: IAUX) reported on September 22, 2026 initial assay results from its Mineral Point open-pit project at Ruby Hill, Nevada, including a step-out hole grading 1.33 g/t gold and 39.2 g/t silver over 225.6 metres and another returning 1.70 g/t gold and 61.5 g/t silver over 170.7 metres. The project was the subject of a 2025 preliminary economic assessment reporting an after-tax NPV of US$614 million, and the Company has planned US$40 million to US$45 million of exploration.
Integra Resources Corp. (NYSE American: ITRG) reported on September 23, 2026 new near-mine drill results at its Florida Canyon mine in Pershing County, Nevada, from 30,140 metres drilled in 2026, including 1.30 g/t gold over 62.5 metres, 0.59 g/t gold over 167.6 metres and, in the new Madre Shear North target, 0.48 g/t gold over 54.9 metres. The Company reported a 74% increase in mineral reserves in its updated technical report and plans 7,000 metres of drilling at the Standard Mine.
"The drill results reported today include some of the best gold intercepts drilled since Integra acquired Florida Canyon," said George Salamis, President and CEO of Integra.
SSR Mining Inc. (Nasdaq: SSRM) reported second quarter 2026 production of 101,959 gold-equivalent ounces at all-in sustaining costs of $2,622 per ounce, with $1,783.0 million in cash. Its Marigold mine in Nevada produced 31,059 ounces in the quarter, the Company raised Marigold growth capital to $65 million, and an updated life-of-mine plan is due by year-end. Full-year guidance stands at 450,000 to 535,000 gold-equivalent ounces.
"We have now completed the strategic repositioning of our business to the Americas," said Rod Antal, Executive Chairman of SSR Mining.
Hudbay Minerals Inc. (NYSE: HBM), whose U.S. portfolio includes the Copper World and Cactus projects in Arizona and the Mason copper project in Nevada, announced on September 28, 2026 an enhanced mine plan at Snow Lake in Manitoba that extends reserve mine life to 2043 and lifts life-of-mine gold production by 60% to 2.8 million ounces, averaging 185,000 ounces a year from 2026 to 2030. Earlier in September, the Company was named to the TSX30, the Toronto Stock Exchange's ranking of top performers, after a 427% share price gain over the three years to June 30, 2026.
"This enhanced Snow Lake mine plan unlocks roughly 60% more gold production over the mine life," said Peter Kukielski, CEO of Hudbay.
The common thread is ground that is already known. From Florida Canyon and Ruby Hill to Rowland and White Star, the work in Nevada this year is about applying modern data to districts with a production history, and the tungsten deadline gives the smallest of those programs a clock that the larger ones do not face.