Awards $6.2M to fund early-stage development, pre-feasibility work at Pilot Mountain.

Backed by new federal funding under the Defense Production Act, Golden Metal Resources Ltd. has been awarded $6.2 million to advance a pre-feasibility study for its Pilot Mountain tungsten project in Nevada – part of a broader U.S. effort to restore domestic supply of a metal vital to aerospace, munitions, and other defense applications.

Located roughly 125 miles southeast of Reno, Pilot Mountain spans nearly 5,000 acres of federally managed land and is considered the largest undeveloped tungsten resource in the continental United States, positioning it as one of the most advanced prospects for reestablishing secure, large-scale domestic production of a metal critical to national defense.

Being advanced by Golden Metal Resources, the wholly owned U.S.-based operating arm of London-listed Guardian Metal Resources PLC, the Pilot Mountain project was acquired in 2021 as a flagship asset due to its rare combination of resource size, infrastructure access, and location within a politically stable jurisdiction prioritized for critical mineral development.

Defined under Canadian NI 43-101 standards, Pilot Mountain hosts 12.53 million metric tons averaging 0.27% (74.6 million pounds) tungsten trioxide across four mineralized zones, representing one of the few known sources of tungsten in a country that has not produced the metal in nearly a decade.

That potential has now drawn direct support from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), which on July 22 awarded Golden Metal Resources $6.2 million in federal funding under Title III of the Defense Production Act to initiate a pre-feasibility study for Pilot Mountain.

"Tungsten is an essential alloying metal for aerospace, ground vehicles, munitions, and many other defense systems," said Vic Ramdass, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy. "Developing a domestic source for tungsten is one of our top critical and strategic mineral priorities."

Funded through the Defense Production Act Purchases Office and authorized under Executive Order 14241, the award for Pilot Mountain represents one of three tungsten-specific investments made by DOD since 2024 and forms part of $314.9 million in federal initiatives issued during fiscal year 2025 to strengthen domestic capacity across critical mineral and defense-related supply chains.

The latest funding will support a series of technical investigations required to evaluate Pilot Mountain's development potential, including metallurgical testing to determine how tungsten can be extracted and processed, engineering studies to assess design and infrastructure needs, and environmental review to identify permitting considerations.

Altogether, this work will inform the study and help determine whether Pilot Mountain can move forward under regulatory standards for commercial mineral development.

"This investment will put the nation on a path to achieve production capability for commercial-scale levels of tungsten, a key metal for numerous DOD systems," said William "Greg" Davis, Acting Director of the Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization (MCEIP) directorate.