Western Star Resources Inc. (CSE: WSR) (OTC: WSRIF) (FRA: 4K2) announced on September 15, 2026, that it has acquired fourteen lode mining claims contiguous with the western boundary of its Eagle Point Tungsten Project in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, along with a Surface Use Agreement providing exclusive surface-use rights for mineral operations across 640 acres for an initial five-year term, with renewal options for up to 25 years. The acquisition consolidates the western extension of the mineralized skarn system and secures surface rights to support the Company’s longer-term development objectives.
The New Claims were located by the vendors under the Bureau of Land Management's Notice of Intent to Locate process, which applies to split estate lands where the federal mineral estate is administered by the BLM and the surface estate is privately owned. Under the Agreement, entered into with the surface owner, Western Star holds the sole and exclusive right to use the surface over the New Claims and surrounding ranch lands for an initial five-year term, renewable for up to 25 years, covering the full life of mine—from exploration and development through open-pit and underground mining, processing, tailings and waste management, and reclamation.
The New Claims cover the western extension of Eagle Point’s mineralized skarn system and incorporate historical trenches and excavations documented in 1950s U.S. Government examination reports filed under the Defense Minerals Exploration Administration program. Their position along the prospective limestone–intrusive contact makes the newly acquired ground a priority for follow-up exploration and strengthens the geological continuity of the Company’s land position. The Company has expanded its ongoing UAV magnetic survey to include the New Claims.
Highlights of the Agreement include full mine-life rights for exploration, development, open-pit, underground and solution mining, milling and processing, tailings, waste dumps, power lines, pipelines, roads, rail loadout and camp facilities. The long tenure provides a five-year initial term with four five-year renewals at Western Star’s election, for up to 25 years, extendable for permitting or market delays. Western Star holds the sole and exclusive right to conduct mineral operations on the surface estate, and the surface owner has agreed not to permit competing exploration, drilling or mining on the ranch lands. Cross-development rights allow the Eagle Point surface to host infrastructure, processing and tailings for ore from adjacent ground controlled by Western Star. The Agreement delivers the surface-owner consent and right-of-entry documentation required for BLM and New Mexico Mining Act permitting of a new mining operation, permits up to 200 acres of active disturbance at any one time, and is freely assignable, giving the Company a clean structure for joint-venture partners and project financing.
Management believes rights of this breadth are unusual for a company at the exploration stage. It is uncommon for a junior explorer to hold exclusive surface use, infrastructure rights, tailings and processing entitlements and renewable tenure of up to 25 years. Rights of this kind are typically assembled piecemeal at the development stage, often at material cost and delay, and their absence is a common reason projects stall at the permitting boundary. At Eagle Point, they are in place at the outset.
“Securing the western extension with the surface rights already in hand is exactly how we want to grow Eagle Point; decisively, and with long-term surface access locked in. The New Claims contain part of the historical trench network that helped define this system, and they have never been touched by modern exploration. With the drone survey expanded while it is still in the air, the entire system will be imaged as one seamless dataset,” commented Blake Morgan, President and CEO.
The Eagle Point program forms part of Western Star’s broader strategy of assembling and systematically advancing past-producing and historically explored tungsten assets in the United States. The Company is advancing Eagle Point alongside its tungsten portfolio in Nevada, including the Rowland and White Star projects, where Western Star has also been applying modern geophysical, geochemical and geological exploration methods to historically productive tungsten systems.
Tungsten is designated as a critical mineral by the United States and is essential to a range of defence, aerospace, industrial and advanced manufacturing applications. Western Star believes the combination of increasing Western focus on critical-mineral security and the scarcity of domestic primary tungsten supply provides a strong strategic backdrop for the advancement of U.S.-based tungsten projects.
With surface access secured, Western Star is advancing detailed mapping and sampling across the Property and initiating baseline environmental and permitting work for the project. The expanded UAV magnetic survey will deliver processed products over the full land package, and mapping and sampling will be extended onto the newly acquired ground, including the historical trenches now within the Property, ahead of drill targeting and permitting.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Western Star acquired the New Claims and the full benefit of the Surface Use Agreement from the vendors in consideration for a cash payment of C$150,000 and the issuance of 4,000,000 common shares of the Company to the vendors, to be paid and issued on closing. In addition, the Company will grant the vendors a 1.5% net smelter returns royalty on the New Claims. The Company may repurchase 1.0% of the NSR royalty for a one-time cash payment of C$1,000,000, reducing the royalty to 0.5%. The closing of the transaction remains subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions, including the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals.
The historical trench sample results presented in this news release are historical in nature. They are taken from a 1955 U.S. Geological Survey report and accompanying maps contained in DMEA Docket 3701 and were generated prior to the implementation of National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. The sample type, sampling and analytical methods, and quality assurance and quality control procedures used are not documented, and the Company has not independently verified the results. A Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to verify the historical results, and they should not be relied upon. They are presented solely to provide context regarding the historical exploration of the Property and are not necessarily indicative of the mineralization that may be present.
The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Jasper Mowatt, MIMMM, MAusIMM, a consultant to the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Mowatt is not independent of the Company.
