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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 26, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- USA News Group News Commentary - A geophysical survey doesn't discover ore, but it can tell a company exactly where to stop guessing. Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) (FRA: 4K2) has completed a district-scale three-dimensional magnetic inversion across its consolidated Rowland and White Star tungsten properties in Elko County, Nevada, and the model has done something specific and useful: it has mapped buried and partially exposed intrusive bodies — the essential engine of a tungsten skarn system — and shown that the Company's two highest-grade rock chips to date, 4.02% WO₃ at Rowland and 3.00% WO₃ at White Star, both sit directly on the modelled contact between that intrusive rock and the carbonate host. The modelled intrusive footprint extends well beyond what's visible at surface, and the Company also confirmed it has satisfied the first earn-in milestone on the Rowland property.
Companies mentioned: Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) (FRA: 4K2), Guardian Metal Resources plc (NYSE American: GMTL) (LSE: GMET), Vault Strategic Mining Corp. (TSXV: KNOX) (OTC: KNXFF), American Tungsten Corp. (TSXV: TUNG) (OTCQX: TUNGF), Almonty Industries Inc. (TSX: AII) (NASDAQ: ALM)
Where the High Grades Actually Sit
The inversion, completed by Warren Hughes, P.Geo. of East Coast Consulting, processed approximately 110 line-kilometres of UAV magnetic survey data collected across roughly 3,000 acres, using a drone-mounted potassium vapour magnetometer flown at a nominal 70-metre sensor height. The output is a three-dimensional model of magnetic susceptibility across the district — and when the Company overlaid its existing rock-chip results onto that model, the pattern was direct: the 4.02% WO₃ sample at Rowland sits on the mapped tactite where it abuts a modelled intrusive body, and the 3.00% WO₃ sample at White Star occupies the equivalent structural position on a separate modelled intrusive. Both are within, or immediately adjacent to, the interpreted structural corridors the model has defined.
“The inversion has modelled intrusive bodies spatially associated with areas where we sampled high grade tungsten values, and it has mapped the faults that we believe carried the fluid there. That is the tungsten skarn recipe, and we can now see it in three dimensions across the whole district,” said Blake Morgan, CEO and President of Western Star. “Better still, the modelled intrusives are more extensive than has been previously mapped, which means the ground that has produced our best rock chips continues into untested areas.”
The Skarn Recipe, and Why Structure Matters
Tungsten skarns form where a granitic intrusion cools inside a carbonate sequence, expelling metal-bearing hydrothermal fluid that reacts with the surrounding limestone to produce skarn — and it's within that skarn that scheelite, the principal tungsten mineral, is deposited. The model published in the U.S. Geological Survey's regional assessment of Great Basin tungsten skarns (Lederer et al., 2021) treats fault-channelled fluid as the variable that determines where the highest grades end up. Western Star's district has now had all three required ingredients mapped in three dimensions for the first time: a modelled intrusion to drive the system, the Palaeozoic carbonate sequence originally mapped by Coats (1964) to host it, and roughly 25 kilometres of newly interpreted structure, in two dominant orientations, to explain where fluid was focused.
The inversion's magnetic domains correspond closely with Coats' original 1964 mapping (USGS Bulletin 1141-M), which the Company says gives it confidence in both datasets — and the new model adds the depth and continuity beneath cover that surface mapping alone can't provide, including beneath the Quaternary landslide, moraine and outwash deposits that blanket the district's eastern flank.
A Milestone Cleared, With Room to Spare
Alongside the geophysical results, Western Star confirmed it has satisfied Milestone One under its option agreement for the Rowland project with NorthEx Capital Partners Inc. and 1249445 BC Ltd. (announced November 5, 2025). The milestone required a claim-area increase of at least 30% and identification of at least three rock-chip samples above 2.0% WO₃. Western Star cleared both thresholds by a wide margin: the Rowland claim package grew from roughly 84 hectares to 221 hectares, an increase of approximately 165%, and July 2026 rock-chip sampling returned four samples above 2.0% WO₃ (4.02%, 2.69%, 2.56% and 2.11% WO₃). Following independent verification, the Company will issue 500,000 common shares to the vendors, valued at the 10-day volume-weighted average price ahead of the verification date, subject to CSE policy.
What Comes Next
Phase 2 soil geochemistry results are due back shortly. Western Star says it will integrate those results with the 3D inversion model, the new structural framework, and the Coats geological mapping into a single district-scale targeting model, with follow-up field mapping planned to refine the geology ahead of ranking and prioritizing drill targets. Learn more about the Company's Nevada tungsten portfolio at www.westernstarresources.com.
Tungsten Names Investors Are Watching
Guardian Metal Resources plc (NYSE American: GMTL) (LSE: GMET)
Guardian Metal is advancing the Pilot Mountain tungsten project in Nevada, backed by a US$6.2 million U.S. Department of War investment under the Defense Production Act. A 2026 pre-feasibility study outlined an after-tax NPV₈ of US$660.3 million and a 59.6% post-tax IRR, with a Plan of Operations targeted for submission in August 2026. As a fellow Nevada tungsten developer with direct federal backing, Guardian Metal is a useful marker for how quickly U.S. tungsten permitting and financing can move in the current policy environment.
Vault Strategic Mining Corp. (TSXV: KNOX) (OTC: KNXFF)
Vault Strategic is exploring the historical War Bond tungsten mine in Nevada's Delaware Mining District, having recently completed a drone-borne magnetic survey and submitted 42 rock and soil samples for assay, with tungsten values up to 1,100 ppm reported from Phase 1 work. As another early-stage Nevada tungsten explorer using airborne geophysics to vector toward drill targets, Vault Strategic's approach closely mirrors Western Star's own inversion-driven targeting strategy.
American Tungsten Corp. (TSXV: TUNG) (OTCQX: TUNGF)
American Tungsten is advancing the high-grade IMA Mine project in Lemhi County, Idaho, and shares gained roughly 7.45% on August 20, 2026 after announcing a mineral resource estimate milestone for the project. As a U.S.-focused junior tungsten developer moving from sampling toward a defined resource, American Tungsten offers a visible reference point for the kind of re-rating that can accompany milestone-driven news in this sector.
Almonty Industries Inc. (TSX: AII) (NASDAQ: ALM)
Almonty is one of the largest non-Chinese tungsten producers in the world, with its Sangdong mine in South Korea among the largest tungsten projects outside China. As the sector's established producer benchmark, Almonty illustrates the scale a tungsten project can eventually reach — and underscores why Western Star's push to expand its own district-scale target inventory in a historically underexplored part of Nevada matters to investors watching the broader supply picture.
These companies are referenced to illustrate the tungsten exploration and development sector generally, and do not imply any partnership, endorsement, affiliation, or comparable financial performance with Western Star Resources Inc.
What to Watch
Phase 2 soil geochemistry is the nearest-term catalyst, expected to sharpen the target list the inversion and structural framework have already outlined. Beyond that, independent verification of the Milestone One conditions and the resulting share issuance to the Rowland vendors is a near-term corporate event, while the Company's USFS Plan of Operations submission for the consolidated Jarbidge–Charleston district will be a signal of how quickly Western Star can move from target definition toward an actual drill program.
CONTINUED… Learn more about Western Star Resources Inc. at: www.USANewsgroup.com