Issued on behalf of Western Star Resources Inc.

As the West scrambles to rebuild a tungsten supply chain outside China, a junior explorer just flew the first modern geophysical survey over a historic Nevada tungsten property — and the data is pointing straight at the old workings.

VANCOUVER, BC, June 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- USA News Group News Commentary — Tungsten is one of those metals most people never think about, yet modern life and modern defense would grind to a halt without it. Harder than almost anything else in nature and able to withstand extraordinary heat, it is essential to armor-piercing munitions, cutting tools, aerospace components, and electronics. And here is the uncomfortable part: the United States has not mined meaningful quantities of it in decades, while China dominates global supply and has shown a growing willingness to wield that dominance through export controls. That collision — indispensable metal, near-total foreign control — has turned the unglamorous business of finding and re-developing domestic tungsten into a strategic priority, and it is the backdrop against which a small Canadian-listed explorer is advancing a historic Nevada property toward the drill bit.

Companies mentioned: Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF), Almonty Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: ALM) (TSX: AII), Guardian Metal Resources PLC (NYSE American: GMTL) (AIM: GMET), EQ Resources Limited (ASX: EQR) (OTCPK: EQRMF), Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU)

On June 17, 2026, Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) reported the results of a high-resolution UAV — drone-borne — magnetic geophysical survey flown across its Rowland Tungsten Property in Elko County, Nevada. It is, by the Company's account, the first modern, high-resolution geophysical dataset ever acquired over the property, and its purpose is precise: to map the hidden structural plumbing of the mineral system, sharpen the geological picture, and rank the most promising targets for follow-up. For a company at the earliest stage of unlocking a historic tungsten district, building that first modern map is a foundational step — and the early read is encouraging.

Why Tungsten Became a Strategic Obsession

For years, tungsten attracted little attention outside the specialists who depend on it. That changed as geopolitics collided with the supply chain. China dominates global tungsten mining and processing, and as it tightened export controls on the metal, Western governments confronted a stark vulnerability: a material essential to defense and high-technology manufacturing was overwhelmingly sourced from a strategic rival. The United States, despite once being a meaningful producer, now has effectively no significant domestic tungsten mine production and has classified the metal as critical to national security. Prices for tungsten have climbed sharply as buyers scramble for non-Chinese supply, and a U.S. defense-procurement rule taking effect at the start of 2027 will, in broad terms, prohibit certain tungsten of Chinese origin in the defense supply chain — sharpening the urgency to develop allied and domestic sources.

That backdrop is what gives a company like Western Star its relevance. The Rowland property sits in Nevada, one of the world's most established and mining-friendly jurisdictions, in a district with a documented history of tungsten activity. The strategic logic is straightforward: a past-producing tungsten property in a tier-one American jurisdiction, advanced with modern exploration techniques, is exactly the kind of asset the Western supply-security push is designed to encourage — and exactly the kind of story investors hunting critical-minerals exposure have begun to seek out.

What the Survey Found

The drone magnetic survey produced the first detailed look beneath the surface of the Rowland property, and the interpretation lined up with the geology in encouraging ways. The survey processed a full suite of magnetic products — Total Magnetic Intensity and its derivatives — and identified multiple northeast-southwest trending linear features across the property. These lineaments are interpreted as possible fault or fracture zones that could have served as pathways for the hydrothermal fluids that carry tungsten mineralisation, the kind of structural plumbing geologists look for when hunting a skarn system.

Critically, several areas of historical mining activity appear to coincide with interpreted intrusive-carbonate contacts and those magnetic lineaments — a relationship the Company considers encouraging, because tungsten skarn deposits commonly form precisely where mineralizing fluids interact with reactive carbonate rocks next to an intrusive body. The survey also suggested that the underlying intrusive system may be more extensive than previously mapped, hinting that the prospective contact zone could reach beyond the historically worked areas. And immediately south of the historical Rowland zone, the data flagged a magnetic-high domain and an adjacent magnetic-low domain — two untested features that may represent extensions of the main zone or entirely new prospective horizons. In plain terms: the old miners found tungsten where the modern data says it should be, and the same data is now pointing to places no one has tested.

"The results of the high-resolution magnetic survey represent an important step in building the first modern exploration dataset at Rowland," said Blake Morgan, CEO and President of Western Star. "The survey has highlighted multiple structural features and magnetic domains that appear to be associated with historical workings and interpreted skarn horizons. We look forward to integrating these results with the Phase 1 soil geochemistry, which is expected imminently, as we advance toward Phase 2 exploration and the definition of priority targets for a maiden drilling campaign."

From Map to Drill Targets

The geophysics is one half of a deliberately sequenced exploration approach. Western Star is preparing to integrate the magnetic interpretation with the results of a property-wide Phase 1 soil geochemistry program — assays the Company says are due in the coming weeks — to build a priority drill-target inventory and design a Phase 2 program. The combination is how modern explorers de-risk a drill campaign before spending the far larger sums that drilling requires: the magnetics reveal the structures and the geochemistry reveals where metal is actually present at surface, and where the two overlap is where drill holes get planned. The Company has framed the geophysics, soil work, and prospecting as building toward the definition of priority targets for a maiden drilling campaign at Rowland.

It is worth being clear about stage. This is grassroots-to-early-stage exploration: a first modern survey and a pending soil program, advancing toward a first-ever modern drill program. There is no mineral resource at Rowland, no economic study, and no guarantee that drilling — if and when it happens — will define a deposit. What the Company has built is a more informed basis for taking the next step, in a district whose history suggests tungsten is present. The technical disclosure was reviewed and approved by qualified person Jasper Mowatt, and the survey data processed under documented quality-control protocols.

The Tungsten Names Investors Are Watching

Western Star sits within a small group of Western-aligned tungsten companies racing to build supply outside China, spanning established producers and earlier-stage developers. Looking at a few of the most prominent public names helps frame both the opportunity and the company Western Star keeps — and the gulf in scale and stage between a grassroots explorer and the sector's leaders.

Almonty Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: ALM) (TSX: AII) is the clearest producing reference point in the group. The company brought its flagship Sangdong mine in South Korea — one of the largest tungsten deposits outside China — into active mining, and also operates assets in Portugal and Spain, positioning itself as a cornerstone non-Chinese tungsten supplier with offtake tied to Western defense applications. Operating at a scale and stage far beyond a grassroots explorer, Almonty demonstrates the commercial destination of the Western-tungsten thesis that Western Star is just beginning to pursue.

Guardian Metal Resources PLC (NYSE American: GMTL) (AIM: GMET) is perhaps the closest stage-and-geography comparison. The company is advancing its co-flagship Pilot Mountain and Tempiute tungsten projects in Nevada — the same state and same domestic-supply thesis as Western Star — and has drawn U.S. government support, including a Defense Production Act investment toward its Pilot Mountain pre-feasibility work, while completing a U.S. listing on the NYSE American in 2026. Guardian illustrates how the market and government are rewarding a U.S.-focused tungsten developer that is further along the curve Western Star hopes to climb.

EQ Resources Limited (ASX: EQR) (OTCPK: EQRMF) represents the established, non-China producer angle from the other side of the world. Operating the Mt Carbine tungsten project in Queensland, Australia and the Barruecopardo mine in Spain, EQ Resources is among the larger tungsten producers outside Chinese control — a reminder that the Western supply response spans multiple continents, and that allied production, not just U.S. production, is part of how the procurement gap gets filled.

Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU) rounds out the group as a diversified U.S. critical-minerals company. Best known as a leading domestic uranium producer, Energy Fuels has expanded into rare earths and other critical minerals through its processing capability, embodying the broader push to rebuild U.S. critical-materials supply chains. While not a tungsten pure-play, it illustrates the policy-driven investor appetite for American critical-minerals producers that the tungsten-security theme is part of. These companies are referenced to illustrate the sector and do not imply any partnership, endorsement, affiliation, or comparable financial performance; they differ widely in size, stage, and commodity mix, and Western Star is an early-stage exploration company without a defined resource.

The Risks Behind the Story

The strategic appeal is real, but so are the risks, and they deserve emphasis. Western Star is an early-stage mineral exploration company, and the Rowland property is at the grassroots end of the exploration pipeline. A magnetic survey, however encouraging, identifies geophysical features and structural targets — it does not prove the presence, grade, or economic viability of mineralisation. The pending soil geochemistry, the planned Phase 2 program, and any maiden drill campaign all lie ahead, and the overwhelming majority of early-stage exploration properties never become mines. There is no mineral resource estimate, no feasibility study, and no production at Rowland.

Beyond the geology, Western Star faces the ordinary but serious risks of a junior explorer: the need for continued access to capital to fund exploration, exposure to volatile tungsten prices, permitting and operational uncertainties, and competition from far larger and better-funded companies — including the very names referenced above. The U.S. supply-security tailwind is genuine, but it does not guarantee that any single early-stage property will succeed. Investors should weigh the compelling macro backdrop against the substantial, well-documented risks of grassroots mineral exploration.

Why the Trajectory Still Matters

Step back, and the larger current is unmistakable. The West is determined to rebuild a tungsten supply chain outside China; the United States has classified the metal as critical, prices have surged, and a defense-procurement cliff at the start of 2027 is sharpening the search for domestic and allied sources. In that environment, a past-producing tungsten property in Nevada — now being systematically de-risked with modern geophysics, soil geochemistry, and a disciplined path toward drilling — sits squarely in the path of powerful policy and market tailwinds. Western Star has taken a concrete step, turning a historically worked but under-explored property into a modern, data-driven target inventory.

Whether the Company can convert that early progress into drill targets, a discovery, and ultimately a resource will be decided over years, through the soil results, the Phase 2 program, and the drill bit — and the odds facing any grassroots explorer are long. But the question Western Star is built around — whether a historic American tungsten district can be revived to help secure a metal the West cannot do without — is exactly the kind of question the market has begun to reward. For investors tracking where critical-minerals security meets early-stage opportunity, Western Star's first modern map of Rowland is a small but telling marker of the broader effort to bring American tungsten back.

CONTINUED … Learn more about Western Star Resources Inc. at: https://usanewsgroup.com/wsr-landing

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SOURCES:

[1] Western Star Resources Inc. — "Western Star Resources Reports UAV Geophysics Results at the Rowland Tungsten Property" (June 17, 2026; primary source for the UAV magnetic survey, lineaments, intrusive-carbonate contacts, untested magnetic domains, Phase 1/Phase 2 plan, CEO Blake Morgan quote, QP Jasper Mowatt):
https://westernstarresources.com/news/

[2] Western Star Resources Inc. — "U.S. Tungsten Supply Chain Tightens As A Nevada Past-Producer Mobilizes Drone Geophysics And Property-Wide Soil Geochemistry Toward Drill-Ready Targets" (Newswire, May 21, 2026; Rowland field-program mobilization, Elko County, skarn horizons, peer context):

[3] U.S. Geological Survey — Mineral Commodity Summaries: Tungsten (no significant U.S. mine production; China dominance; critical-mineral designation):
https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/tungsten-statistics-and-information

[4] Almonty Industries Inc. — Sangdong mine commissioning and Q1 2026 results (NASDAQ: ALM / TSX: AII; non-Chinese tungsten producer, U.S. defense offtake; producing-peer context):

[5] Guardian Metal Resources PLC — Pilot Mountain and Tempiute Nevada tungsten projects, U.S. Defense Production Act investment, NYSE American listing (peer context: GMTL/GMET; EQ Resources EQR, Energy Fuels UUUU; U.S. tungsten supply-security):
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0002039972/000165495426004385/a1349d.htm

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While all information is believed to be reliable, it is not guaranteed by us to be accurate. Individuals should assume that all information contained in our publication is not trustworthy unless verified by their own independent research. Comparisons to other companies referenced in this publication are for contextual and illustrative purposes only and do not imply any partnership, endorsement, affiliation, or comparable financial performance. Forward-looking statements regarding the UAV geophysical survey, soil geochemistry, the planned Phase 2 exploration program and any drilling, target definition, tungsten prices, supply-chain and procurement policy, and exploration outcomes are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Also, because events and circumstances frequently do not occur as expected, there will likely be differences between any predictions and actual results. Always consult a licensed investment professional before making any investment decision. Be extremely careful, investing in securities carries a high degree of risk; you may likely lose some or all of the investment.

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