Boots on the Ground. The Tungsten System That Was Never Drilled Is About to Be
News provided by Equity-Insider.com on behalf of Western Star Resources Inc.
A past-producing New Mexico tungsten skarn that once attracted U.S. Government funding for underground drilling — funding that was never deployed — is finally getting the systematic modern exploration it was promised in the 1950s. Dahrouge Geological Consulting is on the ground. The field program targets completion by August 31.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Equity-Insider.com News Commentary – In critical minerals exploration, the most overlooked assets are often not the ones that have never been found, but the ones that were found, partially explored, and then abandoned when commodity prices made further work economically marginal. Eagle Point is that kind of asset. The tungsten skarn in Hidalgo County, New Mexico produced approximately 1,800 tons of scheelite-bearing material grading approximately 0.52% WO3 during 1943 and 1944. Subsequent U.S. Government geological work outlined what historical examiners estimated as a mineralized system on the order of approximately 170,000 tons. That work was compelling enough that the U.S.
Government entered into a Defense Minerals Exploration Administration agreement to fund 75% of a proposed shaft-sinking and diamond-drilling program. That program was never executed.
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The drilling was never done. The system has sat largely untested by modern exploration methods for more than seventy years while the economics of domestic tungsten supply were irrelevant. They are no longer irrelevant. On August 11, 2026, Western Star Resources announced the commencement of Eagle Point’s maiden field exploration program, with Dahrouge Geological Consulting on site to deliver the systematic geological validation that every drill program needs before a single hole is turned.
Companies mentioned: Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) (FRA: 4K2), MP Materials Corp. (NYSE: MP), Perpetua Resources Corp. (NASDAQ: PPTA) (TSX: PPTA), NioCorp Developments Ltd. (NASDAQ: NB) (TSX: NB), Comstock Inc. (NYSE American: LODE)
The field program Dahrouge is executing at Eagle Point is not glamorous. It does not involve drilling, grade announcements, or resource estimates. What it involves is the unglamorous but essential foundation work without which drilling is guesswork: understanding where the geology actually is, how the structures actually trend, and whether the proposed drill-hole collar locations are actually positioned to test the targets they are supposed to test.
The program scope includes detailed geological and structural mapping, with strike-and-dip measurements and digital field mapping across the eight exposed skarn bodies and the broader prospective contact zone. Systematic channel and grab sampling, with samples documented, photographed, uniquely identified and submitted to ALS Tucson for analysis.
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