Western Star Resources Inc. has defined priority drill targets and a planned four-hole, approximately 1,950-foot program at its 100% owned White Star Tungsten Project in Elko County, Nevada, completing the design of its 2026 Nevada drill campaign. The announcement, first released through NEWMEDIAWIRE, follows the company's October 13 disclosure of plans at the nearby Rowland Tungsten Property, roughly four kilometres north.
Together, the two properties now account for 10 planned holes totalling approximately 5,000 feet (1,524 metres) from seven drill pads. White Star contributes four holes and about 1,950 feet (594 metres) from three pads, while Rowland accounts for six holes and roughly 3,050 feet. The company said every planned drill pad at White Star is sited on existing disturbance, a detail that may matter for permitting timelines in a U.S. Forest Service setting.
The targets were generated from the company's maiden White Star field program, a UAV magnetic survey and three-dimensional magnetic inversion, plus rock-chip and soil assay results. Each planned hole tests one of two tungsten-in-soil anomalies defined in 2026: the North Zone and the South Zone. The full target inventory and combined program are set out in Table 1: White Star drill targets and the combined 2026 Nevada drill program.
At the North Zone, two holes totalling 1,000 feet will test beneath rock-chip sample WS-16-01 (0.126% WO3) and beneath the southern part of the soil anomaly, which sits across the quartz monzonite–tactite contact mapped by Coats (1964), the conventional setting for tungsten skarn mineralisation. Details of the planned holes and the modelled magnetic susceptibility are shown in Figure 2: North Zone – plan and cross-section A–A′ through planned holes WST26-01 and WST26-02, with modelled magnetic susceptibility and the soil anomaly.
At the South Zone, two holes totalling 950 feet will be drilled from a single pad beneath soil sample B206 (2,230 ppm W; 0.28% WO3), the highest value returned at White Star, and the adjacent anomalous samples B205 and B203. The inversion shows the zone overlying a non-magnetic trough coinciding with an interpreted magnetic-low lineament, as illustrated in Figure 3: South Zone – plan and cross-section B–B′ through planned holes WST26-03 and WST26-04, showing the non-magnetic trough beneath the soil anomaly. Collar locations, orientations and lengths remain preliminary and subject to field verification and permitting.
CEO and President Blake Morgan said the Batholith Mine is the only documented historical tungsten producer in the Charleston Mining District and that the maiden program has built a modern dataset around it for the first time. With both properties drill-ready, he said the consolidated Jarbidge–Charleston footprint can advance as a single, district-scale campaign of ten holes and approximately 5,000 feet.
The significance extends beyond one company. Tungsten is a critical mineral used in hardened steels, cutting tools and defence applications, and Western Star is positioning a U.S.-focused portfolio of past-producing assets against supply chains long dominated by China. White Star is the third project in the company's U.S. tungsten portfolio to reach the drill-target stage in 2026.
Permitting work is advancing in parallel. KC Harvey Environmental is preparing the Plan of Operations for submission to the U.S. Forest Service alongside a Nevada Bureau of Mining Regulation and Reclamation reclamation permit, with the objective of drilling Rowland and White Star as one campaign. The scientific and technical content was reviewed by Jasper Mowatt, a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, who is not independent of the company. No new assay results were reported, and the company cautioned that soil geochemical values reflect surficial dispersion and should not be interpreted as grade or as any mineral resource.
