Nasdaq- and TSX-listed Perpetua Resources has been awarded up to $40-million in funding from the US Army's Defense Ordnance Technology Consortium (DOTC) to fund a programme to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of producing tungsten concentrate at the historical Stibnite mining district, in Idaho.

Structured as a 36-month cost-share programme between the company and the US government, the 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 mineralisation.

Perpetua will design and implement the tungsten exploration project, which will focus largely on the tungsten mineralisation beneath the Hangar Flats pit at Stibnite, and will match the US Army’s $40-million contribution in the joint investment.

The initial 18-month phase is expected to cost about $18-million and be shared equally between Perpetua and the US 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.

“The US 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,” says Perpetua president and CEO Jon Cherry.

The DOTC funding brings the total financing awarded to Perpetua by the US government to $126-million since 2022.

Perpetua points out that there has been no commercial tungsten mining in the US since 2015, with the country reliant on imports from a small number of countries. Recent Chinese export controls and new federal sourcing restrictions add to the defence and manufacturing supply risk.

Recent exploration drilling at Stibnite has identified high-grade zones of antimony and tungsten mineralisation, it adds.