Perpetua Resources Corp. announced a new 36-month, $40 million award through the U.S. Army’s Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium (DOTC) from the Portfolio Acquisition Executive Agile Sustainment & Ammunition (PAE AS&A). 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,” said Jon Cherry, Perpetua Resources president and CEO. “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.”
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 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% antimony and 4.2% 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 said it intends to continue to advance its own ongoing exploration activities underneath the currently permitted Hangar Flats pit, which contains approximately 1.37 million oz of gold resources and over 95 million lb of antimony resources not included in the current mine plan or in the company’s reported mineral reserves.
Perpetua said it 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 announced DOTC grant, Perpetua has submitted proposals for additional grants to further expand its critical minerals program.
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