Australian American Tungsten Deploys Two Drill Rigs to Explore Tungsten Mine in Nevada

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On November 9, Australia's American Tungsten & Antimony Ltd announced that it has commenced diamond drilling at the Tennessee Mountain tungsten project in the Alder Mining District of Elko County, Nevada, USA, with plans to complete approximately 3,000 meters of HQ-size core drilling across 17 approved drill pads, using two Epiroc CS14 drill rigs. The drilling will verify historical tungsten mineralization results and search for extensions of the mineralized zone along strike and down dip.

The current drilling program is being carried out by Energold Drilling Corp, with the two rigs operating on a double-shift basis. Planned hole depths are up to approximately 250 meters, primarily designed to intersect the tungsten-bearing skarn mineralization at relatively high angles, and to conduct verification re-drilling of selected historical holes. The AT4 exploration team is responsible for drilling supervision, core logging, sampling, and sample transport. Half-core samples will be sent to American Assay Laboratories in Sparks, Nevada, for analysis, with certified reference materials, blanks, and duplicates inserted for quality control. The drilling program is scheduled to continue until December 2026.

Tungsten mineralization at the Tennessee Mountain property occurs primarily as scheelite, accompanied by molybdenian scheelite (powellite), with the ore bodies hosted in garnet-pyroxene skarns. The mineralized zone is associated with the contact zone between Cretaceous granodiorite intrusions and limestone strata. Historical exploration delineated three tungsten-bearing skarn mineralized lenses, with individual mineralized bodies interpreted to have strike lengths of approximately 130 to 250 meters. The current drilling will test approximately 1,000 meters of potential intrusive contact zone.

AT4, through its subsidiary Trigg Minerals (USA) Inc., holds 426 unpatented lode mining claims covering approximately 8,950 acres (approximately 3,622 hectares) at the project. Among these, the initial four claims acquired are subject to a 1% net smelter return royalty payable to the original rights holders. The project drilling is being conducted under an operating plan approved by the U.S. Forest Service, and the area falls within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest management jurisdiction.

The exploration is also linked to AT4's plans to build tungsten processing capacity in Nevada. The company is advancing the proposed ammonium paratungstate (APT) production process at the Del Sol refinery, and plans to evaluate the suitability of Tennessee Mountain ore as a future feedstock source, alongside third-party tungsten concentrate procurement and offtake arrangements as part of the feedstock supply strategy. Following completion of drilling, the company will conduct mineralogical characterization of samples, beneficiation testwork, and processing suitability studies.