Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) (FRA: 4K2) has released the results of a district-scale three-dimensional geophysical inversion across its Rowland and White Star tungsten properties in Elko County, Nevada. The modelling has defined buried and partially exposed intrusive bodies and refined the fault network interpreted to channel mineralising fluids into the tungsten skarn system. Notably, the company's highest-grade rock chips—4.02% WO3 at Rowland and 3.00% WO3 at White Star—both correspond spatially with the contact between these modelled intrusive rocks and the carbonate host. The modelled intrusive framework extends well beyond the limits of mapped outcrop, opening substantial new search space across both properties.
Blake Morgan, CEO and President of Western Star, stated, "This is the result we were hoping for. The inversion has modelled intrusive bodies spatially associated with areas where we sampled high grade tungsten values, and it has mapped the faults that we believe carried the fluid there. That is the tungsten skarn recipe, and we can now see it in three dimensions across the whole district. Better still, the modelled intrusives are more extensive than has been previously mapped, which means the ground that has produced our best rock chips continues into untested areas. Soil geochemistry from Phase 2 is due back shortly and we can use these in our drill hole planning."
The inversion, completed by Warren Hughes, P.Geo., of East Coast Consulting, identified approximately 25 kilometres of structure in two dominant orientations: north-east–south-west and north-west–south-east. These are interpreted as fluid conduits that fed the skarn, representing the first structural framework mapped at property scale in the district. The modelled magnetic domains correspond closely with units mapped by Coats (1964), adding depth and continuity to that mapping. The inversion also resolves geology beneath extensive Quaternary cover on the eastern flank, providing an exploration vector into ground that cannot be mapped or sampled at surface.
Tungsten skarns form where a granitic intrusion is emplaced into a carbonate sequence. As the intrusion cools, it expels metal-bearing hydrothermal fluid, which reacts with limestone to produce garnet-rich calc-silicate rock (skarn) where scheelite, the principal tungsten mineral, is deposited. The U.S. Geological Survey assessment of tungsten skarn resources across the Great Basin (Lederer and others, 2021) shows skarn develops at depth along intrusion flanks and at shallower levels where fluid migrates along faults and permeable horizons. Fault-channelled fluid is central to the model, determining where highest-grade skarn develops.
Western Star's properties sit squarely within this model. Coats (1964) mapped a quartz monzonite intrusion, a Palaeozoic carbonate sequence, and the skarn developed at the contact. The company's field observations confirmed this where high-grade samples were collected. The most important outcome of the inversion is the relationship between modelled intrusive rocks and existing rock-chip results: at Rowland, the 4.02% WO3 sample sits directly on mapped tactite abutting the modelled intrusive body; at White Star, the 3.00% WO3 sample occupies the same position on a separate intrusive body. Both are within or adjacent to interpreted structural corridors.
The inversion adds the third dimension and continuity beneath cover, showing how far intrusive rocks extend at depth, where the intrusive–carbonate contact runs beneath Quaternary cover, and how the structural network cuts through both. Soil geochemical results from Phase 2 are expected shortly and will be integrated with the inversion model, structural framework, and geological mapping to define and rank drill targets. Follow-up field mapping and sampling will refine the geological model, and resulting targets will support the drill programme and permitting process now underway.
Western Star also announced it has satisfied the first performance milestone under the option agreement for the Rowland tungsten project. Milestone One required increasing the total project claim area by at least 30% and identifying at least three rock-chip samples grading above 2.0% WO3. Both conditions were met: the claim package expanded from 84 hectares to 221 hectares (a 165% increase), and four Rowland samples graded above 2.0% WO3, including 4.02%, 2.69%, 2.56%, and 2.11%. The company will issue 500,000 common shares to the vendors, valued at the 10-day VWAP preceding the verification date, subject to CSE policies.
The scientific and technical information in this release has been reviewed and approved by Jasper Mowatt, MIMMM, MAusIMM, a consultant to the company and a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. Mr. Mowatt is not independent of the company.
