$15.8 Million US Grant for Canadian Tungsten Project Announced in 2024
Key Facts
On December 13, 2024, Fireweed Metals announced that it had received a $15.8 million grant from the US Department of Defense under Title III of the Defense Production Act to support the Mactung tungsten project in Yukon, Canada. The funding is intended to advance the project toward a final investment decision through mine-design optimization, geotechnical investigations, metallurgical testing, and preparation of a new feasibility study. The US Department of Defense said the goal was to "accelerate the development of a tungsten mine at the Mactung site." The initiative aims to support North America's industrial manufacturing base, not to establish production in the United States, as the project is located in Canada. It comes amid efforts to diversify supplies of a metal used by industrial and defense sectors, against a backdrop of heavy US reliance on imports.
The funding was announced in December 2024; it was not a new grant announced in October 2026. Since then, the project has moved into technical work to prepare for the feasibility study: Fireweed announced the start of an updated study on March 9, 2026, and said it expects to complete it in early 2027. The study will be used for engineering work and mine permitting, according to the company. It includes updating the resource model and mine planning and design, alongside metallurgical testing, process design, and optimization of the process flowsheet. Geotechnical and hydrogeological drilling, as well as an updated geological model, are also part of the program supporting the study and permitting.
The 2026 drilling program at Mactung has been completed, Fireweed said in September, with a total of 2,099 metres to support the ongoing feasibility study. In an earlier program in 2025, the company said it had completed 11,117 metres across 66 holes and that the results would support the study. The reported results included an intersection with a true width of 12 metres grading 6.21% tungsten trioxide, and another intersection 29 metres wide grading 2.56%. This work feeds into updated resource estimates and mine and process design, elements used to assess the project's technical aspects ahead of an investment decision. The updated feasibility study, which the company is targeting to complete in early 2027, remains the next announced milestone in this process.
The project's significance is highlighted by the supply picture, according to data from the US Geological Survey cited in its 2026 summary. The United States has had no commercial tungsten mining since 2015, and its net import reliance exceeded 50% in every year from 2021 to 2025. Fireweed also says China accounts for more than 80% of global primary tungsten production, and that North America has recorded no primary production of the metal since 2015. The company describes Mactung as a high-grade deposit in Yukon and says its resources could be sufficient to meet projected North American demand for decades. This outlook places the project among efforts to develop a Canadian source serving the regional market, without implying that the grant funds a mine in the United States.
US Geological Survey data showed the average price of tungsten concentrate at Rotterdam warehouses rose to $380 per metric tonne unit of tungsten trioxide in 2025, compared with $252 in 2024. In a parallel effort to develop the region, Fireweed announced in December 2024 up to C$12.9 million in Canadian funding to plan infrastructure improvements; at the time, the funding was conditional on completing due diligence. The company then signed a contribution agreement with Natural Resources Canada on August 27, 2025, for C$12.9 million, after completing those procedures. The plan includes improving about 250 kilometres of existing roads, increasing the capacity of a transmission line between Faro and Ross River, and building a new line to Macmillan Pass. This work is tied to developing the regional infrastructure needed to support the Macmillan Pass area and its mineral projects.