American Tungsten Confirms High-Grade Ima Resource

American Tungsten Corp. has filed its first mineral resource estimate for the Ima Mine in Lemhi County, Idaho, and it lands as the highest-grade primary tungsten project in the state, the company announced. The estimate turns a past-producing mine that last ran in 1958 into a defined, measurable target for the first time in decades.

At a glance

• American Tungsten’s new resource covers the Ima vein system and surface tailings, with an effective date of July 15, 2026, prepared by independent firm Minetech, LLC.
• Indicated resources total 316,000 tonnes grading 0.55% WO₃, plus 267,000 tonnes of historical tailings grading 0.15% WO₃.
• Inferred resources add 2,178,000 tonnes grading 0.55% WO₃, a category still too early for mine planning.
• The Ima Mine produced tungsten and silver-copper concentrate from the early 1900s through 1958.
• Next steps include a preliminary economic assessment, continued drilling, and evaluating a phased restart that starts with surface tailings.

Why did Idaho’s Ima Mine go quiet, and why is it back?

Ima ran as an underground tungsten producer for decades before closing in 1958, after processing roughly 722,400 tons of ore and yielding about 199,449 metric ton units of WO₃ concentrate between 1945 and 1957 alone. Like most of Idaho’s historic tungsten mines, it sat idle for generations once cheaper imports made US tungsten production largely uneconomic. Our Idaho master report covers how that same story played out at Stibnite, the district that supplied roughly half the nation’s tungsten during World War II.

American Tungsten has spent the past two years re-drilling the property, running rigs on both the historic underground workings and the surface tailings left behind by decades-old milling. This week’s filing is the first time that work has been converted into a formal, independently reviewed resource rather than individual drill results.

What does the new resource actually show?

The estimate splits into three pieces. The Ima vein system carries 316,000 tonnes of Indicated material at 0.55% WO₃, containing 1,747 tonnes of WO₃ and 404,000 ounces of silver as a byproduct, plus 2,178,000 tonnes of Inferred material at the same 0.55% grade. Separately, the historical surface tailings, ore already brought up and processed decades ago, hold 267,000 tonnes of Indicated material at 0.15% WO₃.

Qualified person Karl Swanson of Minetech, LLC prepared the estimate to NI 43-101 and CIM standards. CEO Ali Haji called it “a transformational milestone” that validates Ima as a high-grade system with room to grow, a description tied to the tonnage and grade above rather than to the company’s stock.

What comes next at Ima?

American Tungsten says it is now advancing a preliminary economic assessment alongside continued resource expansion and infill drilling, currently running two underground rigs and one surface rig. Metallurgical test work, engineering studies, and environmental and permitting steps are running in parallel. The company frames the surface tailings as a potential lower-capital first phase of a restart, since that material is already broken and sitting on the surface, ahead of any decision on reopening underground production.

An indicated or inferred resource is a geological estimate, not a mine plan or a production guarantee, and American Tungsten’s own disclosure treats the inferred category as too speculative for economic planning until further drilling upgrades it.

Why do tungsten and silver from Idaho matter?

Tungsten is the hardest-working metal most people never think about. Alloyed as tungsten carbide, it edges the drill bits, saw blades, and machining tools that shape nearly every other manufactured metal part, and the same density that makes it useful in cutting tools also makes it central to armor-piercing penetrators. See tungsten in our Strategic Metals Glossary for the full picture. The United States produces almost none of its own tungsten today and depends heavily on imports, which is why a domestic project moving from historic mine to defined resource matters beyond one company’s balance sheet.

Silver, the byproduct riding alongside Ima’s tungsten, carries the highest electrical conductivity of any metal and shows up throughout electronics and solar manufacturing. Idaho’s Silver Valley built a state on exactly that kind of polymetallic ore, and Ima is a reminder that the state’s tungsten story and its silver story have always run through the same rock.