In the 1950s, the United States government identified a high-grade tungsten deposit in the New Mexico desert, deemed it strategically important, and signed a contract to fund 75% of the cost of sinking a shaft and drilling it out. However, the contract was never executed, the drilling never occurred, and the deposit faded into obscurity for nearly seventy years. Today, with tungsten reclassified as a critical mineral and a looming defense-procurement deadline forcing Washington to confront its near-total dependence on China, that same untested deposit has just been acquired by a company betting the moment has finally arrived.
Western Star Resources Acquires Eagle Point Tungsten Mine
Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) announced it has acquired a 100% interest in the past-producing Eagle Point Tungsten Mine in Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The property includes 24 contiguous lode claims in the Little Hatchet mining district, expanding Western Star's portfolio of U.S. tungsten assets into a new district. The mine has a documented wartime production history, with eight tungsten-bearing skarn bodies exposed at surface. Recent USGS sampling returned a headline scheelite-bearing skarn grade of 27.6% tungsten trioxide (WO₃), equivalent to 219,000 ppm tungsten, plus a roughly 0.98% molybdenum credit. This confirms very high-grade mineralization that earlier work appears to have underestimated.
Historical Significance and Strategic Value
The Eagle Point Mine is a documented past producer, having shipped approximately 1,800 tons of ore during World War II at an average grade of about 0.5% WO₃. In 1955, the U.S. government signed a Defense Minerals Exploration Administration contract to fund 75% of a shaft-and-drill program that was never carried out, leaving the core targets untested. For a company assembling a portfolio of past-producing American tungsten assets, this acquisition anchors a strategy around one of the most geopolitically charged metals on the periodic table.
Why Tungsten Became a Strategic Emergency
Tungsten is one of the most quietly indispensable metals in the industrial and defense economy. It is the hardest naturally occurring metal by certain measures, with the highest melting point of any metal, making it essential for armor-piercing munitions, aerospace components, cutting tools, and advanced manufacturing. The United States has no domestic commercial production and imports what it needs, with China controlling an estimated 85% of global supply. This dependence has turned into a pressing vulnerability as geopolitics have hardened. China has tightened export licensing on tungsten and other critical metals, and the price has responded violently: the benchmark ammonium paratungstate price in Rotterdam traded around US$3,185 per metric tonne unit in early May 2026, roughly a 900% increase over the prior twelve months. Additionally, the DFARS 252.225-7052 procurement restriction, effective January 1, 2027, prohibits Chinese, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean-origin tungsten across much of the U.S. defense supply chain. This means the U.S. defense industrial base will soon be legally required to source tungsten from outside China, even though it currently produces none of its own. That gap is the entire investment thesis behind domestic tungsten developers, and it is why a past-producing American deposit suddenly looks strategic rather than historical.
Key Takeaways
- Western Star Resources (CSE: WSR) acquired a 100% interest in the past-producing Eagle Point Tungsten Mine in New Mexico.
- Recent USGS sampling returned a surface grade of 27.6% WO₃ and 0.98% molybdenum.
- The property was a documented WWII producer (~1,800 tons at ~0.5% WO₃), and a 1955 government contract to fund drilling was never executed.
- Tungsten is a designated U.S. critical mineral; the U.S. has no domestic commercial production, and ~85% of global supply is controlled by China.
- The acquisition comes amid a sharp tightening in Western tungsten supply, alongside peers including Almonty Industries, Guardian Metal Resources, EQ Resources, and Energy Fuels.
