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Published: October 29, 2026 |
Perpetua Resources was awarded a new 36-month, $40 million award through the U.S. Army’s Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium (DOTC). This award will fund a program to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of producing tungsten concentrate at the historical Stibnite Mining District in Idaho.
Structured as a cost-share program between the company and the U.S. Government, funding will support drilling to define a potential tungsten mineral resource, collection of material for laboratory and bench-scale metallurgical testing and permitting and engineering of an exploration decline to access areas of known tungsten mineralization.
“Resilient mineral solutions start here in America. The U.S. Army’s additional investment in a historically proven American tungsten source at Stibnite underscores the growing strategic value of Stibnite’s mineral endowment and continues to strengthen the partnerships supporting Perpetua’s future. Historical production and recent exploration results suggest Stibnite has the potential to be one of the world’s highest-grade tungsten sources,” said Jon Cherry, Perpetua Resources president and CEO.
There has been no commercial tungsten mining in the United States since 2015. The U.S. is wholly reliant on imports from a small number of countries, with recent Chinese export controls and new federal sourcing restrictions adding to the defense and manufacturing supply risk.
The Stibnite mining district has a history of antimony and tungsten production, supplying roughly half of the tungsten and 90 percent of the antimony used by the United States during World War II. When the war ended, mining for tungsten and antimony concluded, leaving identified mineralized materials behind.
Recent Perpetua exploration drilling at Stibnite has identified high-grade zones of antimony and tungsten mineralization. Specifically, Perpetua’s drilling program at the Hangar Flats deposit returned significant tungsten-antimony mineralization.
These encouraging results underpin the new DOTC award which will focus largely on the tungsten mineralization beneath the Hangar Flats pit. Perpetua’s proposed program with the U.S. Army includes an initial surface exploration drilling program and metallurgical test work on an existing 550-kilogram sample compiled from prior exploration activities grading 9.2 percent antimony and 4.2 percent tungsten. Other work will include the design, permitting, and possible construction of an exploration decline to access the high-grade antimony, tungsten and gold mineralization beneath the Hangar Flats pit.
In addition to drilling for tungsten under the DOTC award, the company intends to continue to advance its own ongoing exploration activities underneath the currently permitted Hangar Flats pit which contains approximately 1.37 million ounces of gold resources and more than 95 million pounds of antimony resources not included in the current mine plan or in the company’s reported mineral reserves. The company believes that accessing this material via underground mining may supplement the company’s existing production profile. Any activity outside the scope of the currently permitted mine plan will require additional regulatory review and permitting.
Perpetua will design and implement the tungsten exploration project and will match the U.S. Army’s $40 million contribution in the joint investment. The initial 18-month phase is expected to cost approximately $18 million and be shared equally between Perpetua and the U.S. Army. The timing, scope, and cost of subsequent phases are subject to ongoing development based on results of prior exploration, testing, engineering, and permitting activities, as well as approval of each incremental phase of additional funding.
This new award brings total U.S. Government awards to Perpetua for critical minerals to $126 million since 2022. In addition to the this DOTC grant, Perpetua has submitted proposals for additional grants to further expand its critical minerals program. Perpetua believes its broader claim package is uniquely positioned to support U.S. government critical mineral initiatives.
Perpetua Resources, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is focused on the exploration, site restoration, and redevelopment of gold-antimony-silver deposits in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district of central Idaho. The Stibnite Gold Project is one of the highest grade, open pit gold deposits in the United States and holds the only identified domestic reserve of the critical mineral antimony, which is essential to the defense, energy, and manufacturing sectors. The project is designed to apply a modern, responsible mining approach to restore an abandoned mine site and provide uplift to water quality, improve fish habitat access, and invest in river restoration while supporting local economic development in rural Idaho.
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