American Tungsten Corp. (TSXV: TUNG, OTCQB: DEMRF)
Building America’s Defense Critical Metals Supply
A new executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Monday, July 20, is set to reshape America’s defense supply chain for critical minerals — and no metal sits more squarely in the crosshairs than tungsten. Executive Order 14415 will drastically restrict the national security waivers that have allowed defense contractors to source strategic metals from foreign adversaries. With the new rules taking effect on January 1, 2027, and with the United States producing virtually no tungsten of its own, Nevada’s mineral-rich basins are suddenly being recast as a frontline of national security.
The order enforces 10 U.S.C. 4872 by closing a long-used “non-availability” loophole. Contractors who continue to rely on non-compliant sources will have just 45 days from identifying a supply-chain vulnerability to submit a written corrective action plan. Failure to comply can trigger contract termination, suspension or prosecution. The directive also instructs the Secretary of War to issue, within 180 days, regulations that mandate the qualification of domestic alternative sources — a move aimed squarely at materials like tungsten that remain overwhelmingly dominated by China.
The June edition of METALS 100 shows that American Tungsten Ltd. (TSXV: TUNG | OTCQB: DEMRF | FSE: RK9) is a Canadian exploration company focused on high-potential tungsten and magnetite assets in North America. The Company is advancing the Ima Mine Project in Idaho to commercial production, addressing critical metal scarcity in North America. The Company’s Ima Mine Project is a historic and high-quality underground tungsten past-producing property on private-patented land well above the water table with significant infrastructure. The Company holds an exclusive option to acquire full ownership (subject to a 2% royalty) and has expanded its land position with 113 additional federal claims covering nearly 2,000 acres.
Tungsten’s extreme melting point and hardness make it irreplaceable in armor-piercing ammunition, aerospace structures, cutting tools and high-performance semiconductors. Yet the United States has had no meaningful commercial tungsten mining since 2015, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, while China controls the bulk of global extraction and processing. The executive order directly confronts that vulnerability by requiring defense contractors to trace supply chains down to the raw-material level and prove their sources are secure.
That policy shock is now channeling attention and capital toward Nevada, ranked by the Fraser Institute as a top global mining jurisdiction in 2025. Among the companies best positioned to benefit is Guardian Metal Resources (NYSE American: GMTL), which controls the Pilot Mountain project — one of the largest undeveloped tungsten deposits in the country. The Desert Scheelite deposit at Pilot Mountain hosts an indicated pit-constrained resource of 8.694 million tonnes grading 0.206% WO₃ and an inferred resource of 1.784 million tonnes at 0.169% WO₃, with additional copper, silver and zinc credits. The U.S. Department of War has already backed the project with a $6.2 million grant under Title III of the Defense Production Act to advance a pre-feasibility study. That study outlined an after-tax net present value of $660.3 million and an internal rate of return of 59.6% in the base case, underscoring the economic potential of a secure domestic tungsten supply. Guardian also holds the historic Tempiute tungsten property in Nevada.
Other Nevada-focused explorers are accelerating work along the same strategic logic. Spartan Metals (TSXV: W) recently discovered two new tungsten-bearing quartz veins at its Eagle Tungsten-Silver-Rubidium Project, which covers multiple past-producing mines. The company says officials from the U.S. Department of Energy have proactively reached out to learn more about the asset and how they could help move it forward. Further south, Great Western Mining (LSE: GWMO) is preparing a fully permitted 7,000-foot reverse-circulation drilling program at its Defender-Pine Crow project, where machine-cut channel sampling has already confirmed broad tungsten mineralization. Great Western, which upgraded to the OTCQB market in June to expand U.S. investor access, aims to deliver a maiden mineral resource estimate for the project before year-end.
What was once a niche concern over tungsten supply has now crystallized into a hard regulatory mandate. As the Pentagon forces contractors to lock in compliant, non-adversarial sources, Nevada’s cluster of tungsten assets is transforming from dormant claims into critical components of America’s defense-industrial base. The race unfolding in the desert could redraw the map of U.S. critical-mineral independence.
