Perpetua secures US Army funding to delineate tungsten at Stibnite project
TSX- and Nasdaq-listed Perpetua Resources has been awarded $40-million in funding from the US Army's Defence Ordnance Technology Consortium to evaluate technical and economic feasibility of producing tungsten concentrate at the historical Stibnite mining district that Perpetua operates in Idaho.
Structured as a cost-share programme between the company and the US government, the 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 mineralisation.
Perpetua will design and implement the tungsten exploration project and match the US Army's $40-million contribution. The initial 18-month phase of the project is expected to cost $18-million, which will be equally shared by the parties.
"The US 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," says Perpetua CEO and president Jon Cherry.
Notably, there has been no commercial tungsten mining in the US since 2015, meaning the country is fully reliant on imports.
The Stibnite mining district has a history of antimony and tungsten production, having supplied almost 50% of the tungsten and 90% of the antimony used by the US during World War II. When the war ended, mining for tungsten and antimony also concluded, leaving identified mineralised materials behind.
Perpetua says it has recently identified high-grade zones of antimony and tungsten mineralisation at Stibnite, with a drill programme on the Hangar Flats deposit having returned intercepts of 9.8 m grading 4.6% tungsten and 8.3% antimony; 22.9 m grading 1.2% tungsten and 3.2% antimony; and 3.4 m grading 1.5% tungsten and 10.6% antimony.
Perpetua's proposed programme with the US Army includes an initial surface exploration drilling programme and metallurgical testwork on an existing 550 kg sample compiled from prior exploration activities, which grades about 9.2% antimony and 4.2% tungsten.
Other work will include the design, permitting and possible construction of an exploration decline to access the high-grade tungsten mineralisation below the Hangar Flats pit.
In addition to drilling under the US Army work, Perpetua will continue drilling to outline Hangar Flats' gold resource, which contains about 1.37-million ounces and 95-million pounds of antimony that are not included in the current mine plan or the company's reported mineral reserves.
