Issued on behalf of Western Star Resources Inc.
A LiDAR review at the Rowland Tungsten Property identified more than 17 historical open pits, trenches, shafts and adits across two kilometres of mineralization -- and a maiden drill program is being designed around them as APT prices push past US$3,000/MTU
American News Group News Commentary
VANCOUVER, BC, May 13, 2026 /CNW/ -- Under eight months from now, on January 1, 2027, a U.S. federal procurement rule will bar Chinese, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean tungsten from key U.S. defense applications.[1] The U.S. has had no commercial tungsten mine production since 2015, while China still controls roughly 80% of global mine supply and has restricted exports to 15 approved firms through 2027.[1] Rotterdam APT -- the benchmark intermediate -- is changing hands near US$3,185 per metric tonne unit, up approximately 900% over the trailing 12 months.[1] The defense procurement clock is the most concrete piece of U.S. industrial policy operating on tungsten right now, and it is running against a domestic mining industry that effectively does not exist.
That is the context in which Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) -- a Canadian-listed junior with its flagship asset in Nevada -- announced on May 1, 2026 that it has submitted an application in response to a solicitation from the U.S. Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC), a body managed by Advanced Technology International on behalf of the U.S. Department of War (DoW).[1] The DIBC issued its critical minerals request for project proposal in February 2026, with the DoW prioritizing supply chain alternatives for defense-critical minerals used in aircraft, missiles, semiconductors, and other defense technologies. Western Star's submission focuses on tungsten (WO3).
What makes the submission worth attention is not the application itself -- junior explorers file with DIBC and similar bodies frequently -- but the asset behind it.
A Past-Producer With 17+ Historical Workings
The Rowland Tungsten Property sits in the Jarbidge mining district of Elko County, Nevada, about 6 miles southwest of Jarbidge.[2] It is road accessible, and its production history is documented: 4.5 tons of ore at 3.38% WO₃ shipped in 1943, and approximately 1,000 tons of ore at 0.5–1.0% WO₃ produced from 1954 to 1956, as reported in Western Star's news releases dated November 5, 2025 and April 9, 2026.[3] The property's modern story really begins in March 2026, when Western Star disclosed preparations to mobilize for the first modern exploration program at the site.[2]
A high-resolution LiDAR review undertaken ahead of the spring field season identified over 17 historical open pits, trenches, shafts and adits across the property -- and tungsten mineralization has been traced over 2 kilometres, the full length of the existing property package.[2] The Company has indicated that extensive historical workings are expected to classify the project as previously disturbed, which is expected to streamline the permitting process.[2]
Geologically, the project is underlain by limestones, shales, and quartzites intruded by a Cretaceous-aged quartz monzonite stock, with the intrusive event driving contact metamorphism that formed skarn and hornfels zones up to 100 feet wide.[2] Tungsten mineralization occurs primarily as scheelite -- both as coarse crystals and fine disseminations -- associated with molybdenite, powellite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite within a garnet-epidote-quartz-calcite skarn system.[2] Notably, the most intense historical mineralization occurs approximately 1 kilometre from the mapped intrusive contact, suggesting potential structural or fluid pathway controls beyond simple contact geometry.[2]
CEO and President Blake Morgan framed the timing in the March 23, 2026 release: "With the start of the spring field season coinciding with strong tungsten prices, we are ideally positioned to initiate the maiden exploration program at Rowland."[2] Morgan also noted that since the Company acquired the project, tungsten prices have "experienced a meteoric rise in value moving from $600 range to as high as $2400" per MTU -- a reference that APT pricing has since pushed materially higher.[2] The Company has also indicated it holds numerous LOIs and exclusivity rights on other past-producing tungsten assets.[2]
READ THE FULL REPORT ON WESTERN STAR RESOURCES HERE
The 2026 Spring Work Program
The 2026 work program is being designed to advance Rowland toward drill targeting and includes systematic rock sampling of all historically disturbed areas identified through LiDAR analysis, with three explicit objectives: verifying historical grades, defining mineralized zones, and establishing vectors toward higher-grade mineralization.[2] In addition, orientation soil sampling will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of soil geochemistry ahead of a potential larger-scale survey.[2]
The geophysical component is the piece that addresses the property's principal data gap. Historical mapping has indicated southwest-northeast trending faults and a central thrust fault across the property, and existing workings appear spatially associated with these structures -- but the absence of modern, high-resolution geophysics has limited interpretation.[2] To close that gap, Western Star will conduct a high-resolution UAV magnetic survey at 50-metre line spacing, representing the first modern geophysical survey on the property.[2] The survey is designed to refine the Company's structural interpretation, map intrusive contacts at high resolution, and identify additional skarn targets.[2]
In parallel, the Company is initiating the necessary work streams to submit Notice of Intent to the relevant permitting authority in Elko County, with the aim of advancing permitting in parallel with exploration to position the project for drill testing of high-priority targets.[2]
Investors should note that Western Star is at an early stage; the Company has not yet established a current NI 43-101 mineral resource at the Rowland property, and historical production from the property does not constitute a current mineral resource estimate.[3] The scientific and technical information related to Rowland has been reviewed and approved by Jasper Mowatt, MAusIMM (Membership No. 3178851), a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.[2]
Washington Meetings in May
Alongside the DIBC submission, Morgan stated in the May 1, 2026 release: "Our team will be traveling to Washington in May for meetings to discuss our past-producing tungsten asset. We believe this asset offers significant upside and look forward to demonstrating its potential as we approach our maiden drill program in 2026. Additionally, we will provide further updates shortly regarding the recently announced Rowland exploration program."[1]
The combination is unusual for a junior at Western Star's stage: a past-producing U.S. asset in a recognized mining district with a year-of-production-decision drill program planned, an active dialogue with the U.S. defense procurement apparatus through the DIBC channel, a recently announced 12-month European investor relations mandate with Plutus Invest & Consulting GmbH commencing May 1, 2026, and a CMETC-eligible flow-through financing in motion.[1] The pieces are pointed at a back half of 2026 in which the Washington meetings, the spring fieldwork results, the UAV magnetic survey output, and the lead-up to the maiden drill program all sit ahead of the January 1, 2027 procurement-rule effective date.
CONTINUED… Read the full article and stay updated on Western Star's developments here
In other news across the tungsten and critical minerals reshoring trade that U.S. investors are tracking alongside the past-producer story:
Almonty Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: ALM) (TSX: AII) (ASX: AII) (Frankfurt: ALI1) on March 16, 2026 announced the completion of Phase 1 commissioning at its flagship Sangdong Tungsten Mine in Gangwon Province, South Korea -- marking the return to production after more than 30 years.[4] Phase 1 is now commissioned and producing, with the processing plant designed to handle approximately 640,000 tonnes of ore annually for roughly 2,300 tonnes of tungsten concentrate per year. A Phase 2 expansion expected online in 2027 is designed to roughly double output. At full capacity, Sangdong is positioned to supply approximately 40% of global tungsten demand outside China. Almonty is also targeting production readiness at its Gentung Browns Lake Project in Beaverhead County, Montana by the second half of 2026 -- what would be the first U.S. tungsten mine in roughly a decade.[4]
MP Materials Corp. (NYSE: MP) is the only fully integrated rare earth producer in North America, operating the Mountain Pass mine and processing facility in California and a magnetics facility in Fort Worth, Texas. In Q4 2025, the Company achieved a record 718 metric tons of NdPr oxide production -- a 74% year-over-year increase.[5] In July 2025, MP entered into a public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense, including a US$400 million preferred stock investment, a US$150 million direct loan, a 10-year approximately US$110/kg NdPr price floor, and magnet output commitments tied to the planned 10X facility. A 10X magnetics facility in Northlake, Texas is backed by a $200 million incentive package and is expected to break ground this year.[5]
USA Rare Earth, Inc. (NASDAQ: USAR) is advancing what it describes as a fully vertically integrated "mine-to-magnet" strategy on U.S. soil, anchored by the Round Top Mountain project in Sierra Blanca, Texas -- described as the richest known U.S. deposit of heavy rare earths, gallium, and beryllium -- and a 310,000 sq. ft. magnet manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma.[6] In early 2026, the Company secured a transformative US$1.6 billion funding package from the U.S. government, which included a direct equity stake. The Stillwater plant is expected to reach commercial production in the first half of 2026, producing high-performance sintered NdFeB magnets used in F-35 fighter jets, electric vehicle motors, and missile guidance systems.[6]
Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU) (TSX: EFR) operates the White Mesa Mill in Utah -- the only fully licensed and operating conventional uranium processing facility in the United States -- which has been repurposed to also produce advanced rare earth element products including separated NdPr oxide.[7] The Company produced on-spec dysprosium oxide at pilot scale in July 2025, with terbium oxide and samarium oxide production at pilot scale planned through Q1 2026. Energy Fuels has also assembled heavy mineral sand assets in Madagascar (Vara Mada, formerly known as the Toliara Project) and Brazil (Bahia), creating vertical integration from mine to separation, and reported its high-purity Dy oxide has passed all standards of a major South Korean automotive manufacturer for downstream rare earth permanent magnet production.[7]
The pattern across these names is consistent. Western governments are deploying capital -- equity stakes, price floors, EXIM commitments, and procurement deadlines -- to anchor non-China supply across rare earths, tungsten, antimony, titanium, and the rest of the critical-minerals stack. The market, in turn, is repricing the operators that can deliver actual ounces or tonnes inside the West before the procurement bans take force. With a DIBC submission filed, an EU investor campaign launching, and a maiden drill program at a past-producing U.S. tungsten asset in Nevada on the 2026 schedule, Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) is positioned to keep building news flow into the back half of 2026.
CONTINUED… For more information about Western Star Resources Inc., visit their website here.
CONTACT:
American News Group
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SOURCES
- Western Star Resources Inc. -- "Western Star Resources Submits Application in Response to Solicitation from the U.S. Defense Industrial Base Consortium; Engages Plutus Invest & Consulting GMBH for Investor Relations Services," company news release, May 1, 2026; and "Western Star Files Application With U.S. Defense Industrial Base Consortium as Tungsten Prices Rip and the West Scrambles for Non-China Supply," GlobeNewswire, May 4, 2026, https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/05/04/3286787/0/en/Western-Star-Files-Application-With-U-S-Defense-Industrial-Base-Consortium-as-Tungsten-Prices-Rip-and-the-West-Scrambles-for-Non-China-Supply.html
- Western Star Resources Inc. -- "Western Star Resources Announce the First Modern Exploration Program at the Past Producing Rowland Tungsten Property, in Elko, Nevada, USA," March 23, 2026.
- Western Star Resources Inc. news releases dated November 5, 2025 and April 9, 2026.
- Almonty Industries Inc. -- Phase 1 commissioning completion at Sangdong Tungsten Mine, March 16, 2026.
- MP Materials Corp. -- Q4 2025 production results and U.S. Department of Defense partnership announcement, July 2025.
- USA Rare Earth, Inc. -- Round Top Mountain project and Stillwater magnet manufacturing facility corporate disclosures, early 2026.
- Energy Fuels Inc. -- White Mesa Mill operations and rare earth element pilot production updates, 2025–2026.
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FORWARD-LOOKING, CAUTIONARY & CHART NOTES: This communication contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the future exploration plans of Western Star Resources Inc., the potential of the Rowland Tungsten Project and the Company's British Columbia Western Star Property, anticipated drilling and exploration programs, anticipated catalysts, and the regulatory and macro-economic environment for tungsten and other critical minerals. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, including market, legal, listing, volatility, and commodity-related risks. Western Star is at an early stage of exploration; the Company has not yet established a current NI 43-101 mineral resource at the Rowland property, and historical production from the property does not constitute a current mineral resource estimate. Comparable companies referenced are at different stages of development and are shown for context only. ¹Historical reported grade and production figures are sourced from Western Star Resources Inc. news releases dated November 5, 2025 and April 9, 2026; historical production at Rowland is reported as 4.5 tons of ore at 3.38% WO₃ shipped in 1943 and approximately 1,000 tons of ore at 0.5–1.0% WO₃ produced from 1954–1956. ²Western Star Property description sourced from Western Star Resources Inc. corporate disclosures and news releases. The scientific and technical information related to the Rowland Project has been reviewed and approved by Jasper Mowatt, MAusIMM, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. ³The APT Tungsten "Thesis View" chart on this page reflects an approximate 12-month trajectory of Rotterdam ammonium paratungstate spot prices anchored to the latest reported reference of approximately US$3,185/MTU (Western Star Resources news release, May 4, 2026) and the publicly cited +900% trailing-12-month / +350% year-to-date moves; intermediate monthly values are illustrative interpolations. The "Weekly Detail" chart approximates the FastMarkets weekly Low/Average/High band as published by Almonty Industries, with a referenced latest weekly average of US$3,044.50/MTU; weekly granular values are illustrative interpolations between cited reference points. For authoritative tungsten price data, consult FastMarkets or Argus Media. The TradingView chart and macro-symbol widgets on this page provide third-party market data for informational purposes only. Map locations shown are approximate and for illustrative purposes only.
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