Spartan Metals Corp. (TSXV: W | OTCQB: SPRMF) has commenced its maiden drilling program at the 100% owned Eagle Tungsten-Silver-Rubidium Project in Nevada. The program puts drills into the ground as the United States moves from encouraging secure defense supply chains to imposing more demanding sourcing requirements. In a recent InvestorNews interview, Spartan President, CEO and Director Brett Marsh said that shift has increased the importance of identifying reliable sources much further upstream.
President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14415 on July 20, 2026. Beginning January 1, 2027, the order sharply limits waivers that have permitted defense contractors to acquire covered materials from designated non-allied nations. Where a waiver remains available, contractors will generally need an accepted mitigation plan identifying the non-compliant source, documenting efforts to obtain compliant material and setting a firm timetable for removing that source from the supply chain. “It moved from what used to be guidance and a general preference for contractors to obtain domestic sources to almost forcing them to develop domestic sources,” Marsh told InvestorNews host Tracy Hughes.
The underlying statute, 10 U.S.C. 4872, specifically covers tungsten metal powder, tungsten heavy alloy and finished or semi-finished components containing that alloy. Executive Order 14415 goes further by directing the U.S. Department of War to require critical supply chains to be mapped through every tier, from raw materials to the finished products delivered to the department. “The government still does not understand how far back it needs to go in the supply chain,” Marsh said. Spartan occupies the earliest stage of that chain by exploring mineralization that could potentially become a traceable U.S. source.
Traceability remains a difficult practical problem. Hughes noted that earlier attempts to follow minerals such as cobalt from mine to market have required substantial capital without necessarily producing reliable, widely adopted systems. Marsh expects more advanced digital tools to play a role and sees the sourcing and storage framework surrounding Project Vault as part of the broader effort, although he acknowledged that the necessary systems have not yet gained meaningful momentum. Project Vault is a public-private strategic reserve backed by a US$10 billion Export-Import Bank of the United States loan and nearly US$2 billion in private capital, but it is not by itself a complete mine-to-product traceability system.
Against that policy backdrop, Spartan announced earlier today (August 24th) that up to 3,000 meters of diamond core drilling was underway at Eagle, approximately 120 kilometers northeast of Ely in White Pine County. The program is fully funded from working capital raised earlier in 2026. It will test the Southeast Tungsten Anomaly and its skarn potential, the tungsten-silver-rubidium vein system defined through recent surface exploration, and additional targets identified by induced polarization geophysics. The immediate objective is to assess the depth, continuity and geometry of the mineralization, with initial assay results expected as they become available later this year.
The drilling follows a surface program that expanded the defined Tungstonia mineralized footprint by more than thirteen times. Spartan reported eight tungsten-silver veins across an area measuring approximately 2.7 kilometers by 2.1 kilometers, with roughly 6.8 kilometers of cumulative exposed surface strike length and assays as high as 5.18% WO₃. Those results, together with soil anomalies, confirmed skarn mineralization and geophysical data, were used to refine the current drill targets. “We have selected some pretty high-priority targets, and the preliminary geophysical results have highlighted significant targets at Eagle,” Marsh said.
Executive Order 14415 may increase the strategic importance of traceable U.S. tungsten, but policy alignment does not remove the geological, metallurgical, permitting and financing work required to establish a new source of supply. For Spartan, the immediate test is now in the drill core: whether the broad mineralized footprint identified at surface continues at depth with the continuity and scale needed to move Eagle forward. The company expects to begin providing that evidence when its first assays are released later in 2026.
To access the complete interview, click here
Don’t miss other InvestorNews interviews. Subscribe to the InvestorNews YouTube channel by clicking here
Leave a Reply