Nevada mine advances rare earth production ahead of 2027 U.S. deadline

Canada NewsWire Issued on behalf of Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) (FRA: 4K2) VANCOUVER, BC , June 2, 2026 /CNW/ -- Equity Insider News Commentary — Tungsten spent the better part of a decade as an afterthought in Western industrial policy—a metal everyone needed and almost no one outside China actually mined. That complacency is now colliding with a hard procurement deadline. After January 1, 2027, U.S. defense supply chains face restrictions on Chinese, Russian, Iranian and North Korean tungsten that reach from the mine all the way through finished powders, heavy alloys and magnets, a cliff written into DFARS 252.225-7052 and 10 U.S.C. §4872.

The result has been a scramble to stand up non-Chinese supply, and a rerating of nearly every company with a credible path to producing the metal in a friendly jurisdiction. Against that backdrop, Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) (FRA: 4K2) has taken a step that, on its own, looks procedural—but in this market is anything but. The company has engaged KC Harvey Environmental, LLC to lead drill-permitting at its 100%-owned, past-producing Rowland Tungsten Property in Elko County, Nevada, and has opened formal dialogue with the U.S. Forest Service district that oversees the ground.

For a junior explorer, the permitting clock and the procurement clock are now running in the same direction at the same time. See why Rowland is positioned for the tungsten supply squeeze — view the full Western Star investor briefing here. From the historical record to a federal application In its June 3, 2026 release, Western Star confirmed it has retained KC Harvey Environmental to prepare and submit a Plan of Operations—USDA Forest Service form FS-2800-5, filed under 36 CFR 228A—covering the company's proposed Phase 2 drilling program at Rowland, and to manage the associated National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review.

The company has also begun engagement with the Jarbidge District Ranger of the Mountain City–Ruby Mountains–Jarbidge Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, the relevant federal authority for the property. The Plan of Operations is the principal authorization a company needs to drill on National Forest System lands, and it is the document on which a project's timeline frequently lives or dies. KC Harvey's scope, as described by the company, covers preparation of the Plan of Operations, supporting environmental baseline and reclamation planning, and coordination of the NEPA review with the Forest Service.

Western Star says it intends to advance the federal application in parallel with state-level reclamation permitting and its ongoing Phase 1 and Phase 2 exploration programs at Rowland. The choice of consultant is itself a signal of intent. KC Harvey Environmental is a Bozeman, Montana–based firm specializing in mining permitting, reclamation and NEPA support across the western United States.

Its mining services are led by founder Kevin Harvey, M.Sc., a board-certified professional soil scientist and the current president of the American Society of Mining and Reclamation. Bringing in a permitting specialist with that profile is the kind of move that tends to precede a serious push toward the drill bit rather than a placeholder filing. "Engaging KC Harvey and opening dialogue with the Jarbidge District Ranger is the logical next step for Rowland," commented Blake Morgan, CEO and President of Western Star.

"With Phase 1 field work confirming a materially larger exploration opportunity than the historical record suggested, our priority is to advance permitting in parallel with exploration so we are positioned to drill test the Rowland targets without delay." That last point—permitting in parallel rather than in sequence—is the strategic core of the announcement. Juniors often treat permitting as something to start once the geology is fully de-risked. With a 2027 procurement cliff approaching and tungsten supply tight, Western Star is treating the regulatory pathway as a critical-path item to be advanced alongside the science, not after it.

Why " previously disturbed " matters Rowland's history is not just color—it is potentially a permitting advantage. The property hosts three confirmed zones of historical tungsten workings, and the company expects that the extensive existing disturbance will support its case that the project area is previously disturbed ground. In NEPA terms, a site that has already seen mining activity can, in many cases, follow a more streamlined environmental review than a true greenfield disturbance, because the baseline conditions and reclamation considerations are different.

The historical numbers at Rowland are modest in absolute terms but striking in grade. Recorded output includes roughly 4.5 tons grading 3.38% WO3 in 1943, and on the order of 1,000 tons at 0.5–1.0% WO3 in the mid-1950s—figures that speak to high-grade scheelite mineralization left behind when tungsten prices collapsed and cheaper Chinese supply took over. Those grades are precisely the kind of legacy that becomes interesting again when the metal trades at multiples of where it sat a few years ago, and when buyers will pay a premium for units that never touch a Chinese supply chain.

Western Star's technical disclosure on Rowland has been reviewed and approved by Jasper Mowatt, MIMMM and MAusIMM, a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Investors should note that historical production figures pre-date modern reporting standards and have not been verified as current mineral resources; they are indicative of the tenor of past mining rather than a present-day resource estimate. Want the full picture on Rowland ' s high-grade history and Phase 2 targets?

Explore the project breakdown here. A market that has changed beyond recognition The reason a single permitting engagement carries weight is the metal market behind it. According to Fastmarkets , ammonium paratungstate (APT) assessments for the 88.5% WO3 CIF Rotterdam and Baltimore duty-free benchmark climbed from roughly $900–940 per metric tonne unit in January to a $1,650–1,900 range by mid-February as buyers scrambled to secure units—moves that trace directly to China's control of more than three-quarters of global supply and its tightening export posture.

Pricing has stayed volatile and elevated since, with some assessments through the spring running well above $3,000 per mtu even as softer Chinese domestic demand introduced two-way risk into the spot market. The policy layer reinforces the price signal. China's 2026 mining quotas are being cut a further 8%, deepening a cumulative reduction relative to 2024 levels, and S&P Global analysis cited in market commentary has noted that even a mine breaking ground today would struggle to deliver meaningful supply before about 2030.

For Western buyers facing the 2027 DFARS procurement cliff, that timeline gap is the entire investment thesis: the demand is mandated, the lead times are long, and the qualified Western supply simply does not yet exist at scale. It is worth distinguishing the company's primary news date from this commentary. Western Star issued its KC Harvey announcement on June 3, 2026; this article is syndicated market commentary published by USA News Group on behalf of Market IQ Media Group, Inc. and should not be read as the company's own disclosure.

Four tungsten names investors are watching alongside Western Star Western Star sits at the early, pre-drill end of the tungsten spectrum, which makes the broader peer group useful context for understanding where capital is flowing as the reshoring trade matures. Four operators—spanning producers and developers across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia—illustrate the range. Almonty Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: ALM) (TSX: AII) is the name most often cited as the template for what a Western tungsten producer can become.

In March 2026 , Almonty completed Phase 1 commissioning of its Sangdong tungsten mine in South Korea—back in production after more than three decades—with the plant designed to process around 640,000 tonnes of ore annually for roughly 2,300 tonnes of tungsten concentrate per year. A Phase 2 expansion slated for 2027 is designed to roughly double that output, with the company targeting supply of about 40% of global tungsten demand outside China. Almonty has relocated its corporate headquarters to Montana and frames Sangdong explicitly around U.S. defense procurement requirements that mandate non-China sourcing after 2027.

Guardian Metal Resources PLC (NYSE American: GMTL) (LON: GMET) (OTCQB: GMTLF) is arguably the closest structural and geographic comparison to Western Star. The company is advancing two past-producing Nevada tungsten projects—Pilot Mountain and Tempiute—and, per its May 6, 2026 update , is progressing a pre-feasibility study at Pilot Mountain supported by a U.S. Department of War $6.2 million Defense Production Act Title III investment, with a mine Plan of Operations targeted for submission to U.S. regulators in August 2026. Guardian completed a NYSE American listing on March 20, 2026.

Its permitting-and-feasibility trajectory on Nevada ground is, in effect, a few steps ahead on the same road Western Star is now starting down at Rowland. EQ Resources Limited (ASX: EQR) rounds out the producer side from the Australia–Europe axis. Per its H1 FY2026 results , the company lifted half-year revenue 26% to A$43.96 million on tungsten concentrate production of 67,126 mtu across its Mt Carbine mine in Queensland and Barruecopardo mine in Spain, while narrowing its net loss sharply.

Management has guided to a Mt Carbine ramp-up toward roughly 1,750 tonnes of WO3 annually by the end of 2026 as the operation moves into higher-grade in-situ ore. EQ underscores how operating leverage at an existing producer can swing results quickly when tungsten prices are running. American Tungsten Corp. (CSE: TUNG) (OTCQB: TUNGF) (FRA: RK90) is the closest peer on the explorer end of the spectrum.

The company is advancing the IMA Mine Project in Lemhi County, Idaho—a past-producing underground tungsten mine on 22 patented claims that yielded approximately 199,449 mtu of WO3 between 1945 and 1957. American Tungsten is running a multi-rig drilling program to define a modern resource and assess a potential restart of underground operations, pursuing a phased strategy that begins with surface tailings before moving to underground rehabilitation. Like Western Star, its thesis rests on reactivating a high-grade historical asset rather than discovering one from scratch.

Across all four, the common thread is the same one driving interest in Western Star: a Western jurisdiction, a defensible supply-chain story, and a buyer base that is increasingly willing—and in defense contexts, legally required—to pay up for non-Chinese tungsten. What to watch from here For Western Star specifically, the near-term catalysts now cluster around the permitting and exploration programs running in tandem. The company has said it will provide further updates upon submission of the Plan of Operations and as the NEPA review progresses—so the filing of the FS-2800-5 itself becomes the first concrete milestone to watch, followed by the Forest Service's determination on the appropriate level of environmental review.

A streamlined pathway predicated on previously disturbed ground would be a meaningful de-risking event; a more involved review would extend the runway to drilling. Layered on top is the policy calendar. Canada's Critical Mineral Exploration Tax Credit framework, carried in Budget 2025 measures that received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026, offers a 30% credit stacked on top of the existing flow-through deduction structure for qualifying agreements—an increasingly relevant financing lever for tungsten-focused juniors looking to fund drill programs.

And the 2027 federal procurement cliff continues to compress the window in which a credible, friendly-jurisdiction tungsten story can establish itself before defense buyers lock in their qualified suppliers. None of this changes the fundamental reality that Rowland remains an early-stage exploration property whose grades are documented in the historical record rather than a modern resource estimate. But the company's decision to put a specialist permitting consultant on the file and open the federal dialogue now—rather than wait—tells investors how Western Star reads the moment: a market where the scarce commodity may end up being not tungsten itself, but the time and permits required to bring Western ounces to surface before the deadline arrives.

Stay ahead of the next Rowland milestone — get updates and the full Western Star story here. About Western Star Resources Western Star Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration and development company whose objective is to increase shareholder value through cost-effective exploration, the acquisition of further exploration properties, and partnerships by joint venture or sale with industry leaders. The company's 100%-owned, past-producing Rowland Tungsten Property is located in Elko County, Nevada.

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