The junior miner is strengthening its board and drill program as it really works to revive one of many world’s highest-grade tungsten belts within the NWT.
Investorideas.com (www.investorideas.com) Mining article from Richard Mills.
2026.06.25
Rackla Metals (TSXV:RAK) is beefing up its senior government and advisory groups because it prepares to drill its Lentung Tungsten Venture within the Canadian Northwest Territories.
The undertaking may supply a serious enhance to the NWT, which is seeing diamond mines on their final legs as a consequence of useful resource depletion.
Diamond mining is the cornerstone of the Northwest Territories’ financial system, accounting for as much as 33% of its GDP.
As diamond mines section out, the territory is transitioning to a “substitute financial system” closely anchored in essential minerals. The NWT holds huge, untapped deposits important for international clear power know-how, battery storage and digital provide chains.
A contemporary territorial mineral potential examine recognized 1,721 mineral showings containing 19 essential minerals. Exploration and improvement are focusing on a number of key commodities and high-profile tasks, together with the Cantung-Mactung deposit, one of many world’s highest-grade tungsten sources outdoors of China.
Commercial
Appointments
On June 4, Rackla introduced the appointment of Jeff Reinson to the corporate’s board of administrators.
Reinson is a seasoned mining government with greater than 25 years of expertise. His appointment provides vital mine improvement and working experience to Rackla’s board at an necessary time, as the corporate evaluates the potential of its tungsten property within the Northwest Territories and the broader alternative to take part within the redevelopment of a Canadian tungsten district.
Reinson beforehand served as vice chairman of operations at Burgundy Diamond Mines (ASX:BDM), the place he oversaw the 24-hour operation of the Ekati Diamond Mine. Previous to his tenure at Burgundy, he was chief working officer at First Mining Gold (TSX:FF). He’s at present senior vice chairman of improvement at Li-FT Energy (TSXV:LIFT), one other essential minerals firm.
On June 17, Rackla introduced that Paul Gruner has joined Rackla’s advisory committee to help the corporate in creating its indigenous partnership technique and engagement framework in reference to the development of its northern essential minerals property.
Gruner is a senior government with intensive expertise in indigenous enterprise management, mining, infrastructure, renewable power, financial improvement, and partnership-building throughout northern Canada. He brings a deep understanding of the sensible, industrial, cultural, and governance concerns required to construct sturdy relationships between useful resource firms and Indigenous governments, improvement companies, and neighborhood stakeholders.
Gruner at present serves as CEO of Tlicho Funding Company, the financial arm of the Tlicho First Nation. He beforehand served as chief government officer of Det’on Cho Administration LP, the financial improvement arm of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, and as chief government officer of the Tahltan Nation Improvement Company, the enterprise arm of the Tahltan Nation. In these roles, Gruner has led main Indigenous-owned companies concerned in mining companies, infrastructure, logistics, development, power, and neighborhood financial improvement.
Lentung Venture
The undertaking is positioned inside the Tombstone Tungsten Belt of the western Northwest Territories and is roughly 60 km north of the past-producing Cantung tungsten mine.
Between 1977 and 1982, Union Carbide Exploration Company performed a complete exploration program on the Lentung property (beforehand referred to as Lened) which included 26,900 meters of diamond drilling, geochemical and geophysical surveys, detailed geological mapping, trenching, metallurgical, engineering, financial and environmental research.
In 1982, Union Carbide submitted the undertaking to the Federal Environmental Evaluation and Evaluation Course of (EARP) searching for a mine allow. Nonetheless, as a consequence of declining tungsten costs, the corporate withdrew the appliance and paused all actions on the web site. There was no vital work finished since then.
Rackla has acquired the unique Union Carbide information together with authentic drill logs, assay sheets, mylar maps, metallurgical, environmental, useful resource, financial and geophysical research.
The overview of the information to this point has proven a high quality dataset that’s confirming a sturdy deposit with high-grade open pit potential.
The historic work by Union Carbide contains 26,900m of drilling throughout 178 holes, figuring out 15 tungsten occurrences over a 15-km strike size, highlighting vital scale and upside.
Historic inner useful resource and feasibility work point out strong economics, together with common mill grades of 1.14% WO3 and robust restoration assumptions.
The deposit ranks among the many highest-grade tungsten skarn techniques globally and is positioned in shut proximity to the world-class Cantung and Mactung tungsten deposits.
(Whereas the information set is intensive and, in response to Rackla, seems to be top quality, it’s historic, largely inner to Union Carbide, and assembled previous to NI 43-101 reporting necessities. The grade and useful resource numbers are to not be relied upon for funding functions.)
The historic useful resource estimate by Union Carbide was calculated for less than three of the 15 tungsten occurrences on the Lened property and ranks as one of many highest-grade tungsten skarn deposits on this planet in response to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Lened/Lentung is positioned in a area internet hosting world-class tungsten deposits together with the past-producing Cantung mine and the Mactung deposit (Determine 1).
The tungsten mineralization at Lentung is hosted in altered limestone alongside the margins of Cretaceous alkalic (quartz monzonite) intrusions belonging to the Tungsten Suite (Lened, CAC and Rudi plutons, Determine 2). Mineralization consists of the tungsten mineral scheelite with minor copper and gold related to the skarns. The mineral useful resource was calculated on the Emma, Western Skarn, and Stephen’s Ridge occurrences.
Figures 3 by means of 5 show the open-pit potential of the mineralization.
It is value noting that Union Carbide’s historic mineral useful resource was finished utilizing a 0.6% lower off grade, which for a tungsten open-pit useful resource finished as we speak appears extraordinarily excessive, Rackla, imo, will seemingly use a a lot decrease lower off, many sources are going to market with a 0.02% cutoff.
In response to AI-generated search outcomes, the typical grade of world open-pit tungsten sources evaluated as we speak ranges from 0.11% to 0.23% WO3, whereas the standard cut-off grade for an economically viable open pit mine is often between 0.05% and 0.08% WO3. This data just isn’t for use for funding functions.
The value of a metric tonne of 65% tungsten trioxide (WO3) focus (sometimes traded as 65% wolframite or scheelite) at present trades round RMB 450,000 per metric tonne (approx. $62,000 to $63,000 USD).
Tungsten concentrates are offered on the premise of their contained weight. One metric tonne containing 65% WO3 holds 650 kilograms of pure tungsten trioxide.
As a result of the market experiences volatility as a consequence of provide quotas and geopolitical shifts, costs are sometimes calculated and quoted in Metric Ton Items (MTU), the place 1 MTU = 10 kg
With its land-use allow secured, which incorporates drilling permits, Rackla will twin historic drill holes and re-verify the information to supply an NI 43-101-compliant useful resource calculation.
Elsewhere on the property, tungsten skarn mineralization is noticed the place the quartz monzonite intrusions work together with limestone-bearing items to type an extra twelve skarn occurrences. These occurrences have undergone solely minor exploration and drilling and additional work on these is deliberate to find out if they might include further sources.
The place the intrusions encounter carbonate rocks like limestone and dolomite, there may be potential for tungsten skarn mineralization and Rackla can be exploring this potential. Desk 1 lists a few of the highlights from every of those different zones.
Cantung mine
In response to Rackla, the proximity of the Lentung undertaking to the Cantung mine presents a compelling exploration alternative given robust tungsten costs, the rising international curiosity in essential minerals, and the will for a secure, safe North American provide. The Cantung mine started manufacturing in 1962 and operated intermittently till 2015, when it shut down as a consequence of low tungsten costs.
The Cantung Mine – positioned simply over the NWT border, roughly 300 km north of Watson Lake, Yukon – has intensive manufacturing and operational infrastructure in place which features a fully-equipped mill advanced, gravity concentrator and flotation cells. There are additionally newly constructed water remedy services, and 5 tailings administration areas, a gravel airstrip, energetic and closed landfills, gasoline storage tanks, and numerous pipelines. AND a workforce camp absolutely able to supporting operations.
Cantung used on-site milling that mixed gravity and flotation circuits to course of its ore. This separation methodology efficiently extracted the precious tungsten mineral (scheelite), producing two grades of tungsten focus alongside a copper focus byproduct. The mined ore was processed into: Premium Gravity Focus: Averaged 65% tungsten trioxide (WO3). Flotation Focus: Averaged 35% tungsten trioxide (WO3). Copper Focus: Averaged 28% Copper.
The concentrated tungsten merchandise had been then trucked out by way of the Nahanni Vary Street to Watson Lake within the Yukon. From there, the shipments had been transported to main distribution and market hubs in Edmonton, Alberta, and Vancouver, British Columbia, in the end serving worldwide markets in the USA and Western Europe (with main historic shoppers together with producers like Sandvik Coromant and Osram Sylvania).
The positioning is accessed year-round by way of an all-season street related to the Alaska Freeway at Watson Lake. The street goes previous Cantung to Lentung.
The mine is at present on care and upkeep.
Open-pit sources at Cantung are severely depleted. Any future restart will seemingly be a completely underground operation to focus on the remaining sources. The high-grade open pit tungsten at Lentung may contribute to the re-establishment of tungsten mining on this area.
The corporate is working in session with the Sahtu Dene First Nation, the Dehcho First Nations and native communities.
“Once more, we’re grateful for the assist and suggestions we obtained all through the allowing course of from communities throughout the area, together with the Dehcho First Nations and Sahtu Dene and Metis, to native organizations, regional regulators and authorities,” Rackla’s CEO Simon Ridgway said within the Might 21 information launch. “Since staking Lentung throughout the 2025 exploration season and buying the total historic database compiled by Union Carbide, we have now been eager to return the drills to the property and revitalize this world-renowned belt with a brand new wave of tungsten exploration. We view the Northwest Territories as a good jurisdiction, because of the clear and environment friendly allowing course of that helps accountable mineral exploration, and we acknowledge the long-term financial alternatives exploration can convey to the area.”
2026 plans
Rackla’s 2026 plans for the Lentung Venture are to:
- Set up a brand new 49-person camp.
- Full 4,000m of diamond drilling by twinning 27 holes to verify Union Carbide outcomes and to convey their findings as much as a contemporary commonplace.
- Full 6,000m of reverse circulation drilling to additional outline the identified occurrences.
- Conduct floor trenching to show shallowly buried tungsten our bodies.
- Clear and restore the 25 km of current roads and trails on web site and the entry path to the Howards Cross Entry Street.
- Produce an NI 43-101 useful resource calculation following the exploration season.
The 2026 discipline program commenced in late Might.
Earlier that month, Rackla obtained the ultimate allow permitting it to conduct exploration on its Lentung Tungsten Venture.
Rackla’s Lentung Venture now absolutely permitted for 2026 exploration – Richard Mills
The corporate on Might 21 introduced that it has obtained a five-year Kind A land use allow from the Sahtu Land and Water Board.
The allow permits for the institution of a 49-person camp, a drill program, and the restore, upkeep and use of trails and entry routes at Lentung. The Lentung Venture is now absolutely permitted for the upcoming 2026 exploration season.
Rackla plans 10,000m drill program at Lentung tungsten property – Richard Mills
Conclusion
Tungsten (W) is without doubt one of the world’s hardest and hardest-to-source supplies. It tolerates probably the most extreme-temperature environments, making it helpful for lights, transistors, development tools, and elements for vehicles and plane. Tungsten-based alloys are utilized in a wide range of industries, together with protection, aerospace, power and electronics.
As a result of tungsten is extraordinarily laborious, it’s important for armor-piercing munitions and high-end tooling. This has turned tungsten right into a frontline strategic materials. No surprise that a number of international locations, together with Canada and the US, have categorized it as a essential mineral.
Even mining is determined by tungsten, as diamond drill bits depend on tungsten parts.
Simply over half of the globe’s tungsten reserves are in China. Different reserve holders embrace Canada, Russia, the US, Vietnam and Bolivia, in descending order. Canada’s solely producing tungsten mine, Cantung within the Northwest Territories, closed in 2015. Vietnam is boosting its output to overhaul Russia.
However China controls roughly 80% of the world’s major tungsten provide, however state-backed merchants and firms are aggressively scouring scrap yards and dumps within the US and globally for used drill bits, mining instruments, and discarded industrial tools.
This paradoxical scenario is pushed by a mix of home insurance policies, navy demand, and processing bottlenecks.
To protect its geological benefit and management environmental impacts, Beijing closely restricts how a lot uncooked ore could be mined domestically, forcing Chinese language firms to hunt outdoors sources to satisfy hovering demand.
Beijing additionally applied strict dual-use export controls on uncooked tungsten. As a result of it’s a cornerstone metallic for munitions, missiles, and aerospace, tightening the worldwide market has created a global bidding warfare the place Chinese language consumers steadily outbid Western recyclers at scrap yards to purchase again provide.
Tungsten provide is not maintaining with demand, which is why tungsten costs are hovering. On April 29, Reuters reported costs of ammonium paratungstate (APT), used to supply tungsten metallic, had been above $3,000 per tonne in Rotterdam, up greater than 200% for the reason that begin of the 12 months.
Elements embrace China slicing its mining quota by 6.5% final 12 months, Chinese language export controls and industrial demand.
Exterior of China there are only some tungsten mines, making exploration crucial.
Rackla is planning 4,000m of diamond drilling by twinning 27 holes to verify Union Carbide outcomes, and 6,000m of reverse circulation drilling to additional outline the identified occurrences. 10,000 meters in whole.
The grades and exploration potential of Lentung make it a particularly attention-grabbing undertaking.
Historic work by Union Carbide contains 26,900m of drilling throughout 178 holes, figuring out 15 tungsten occurrences over a 15-km strike size, highlighting vital scale and upside.
Historic inner useful resource and feasibility work point out strong economics, together with common mill grades of 1.14% WO3 and robust restoration assumptions.
The historic useful resource estimate by Union Carbide was calculated for less than three of the 15 tungsten occurrences on the Lened property and ranks as one of many highest-grade tungsten skarn deposits on this planet in response to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
If the Cantung mine re-opens – and why would not it with excessive tungsten costs and the Canadian authorities’s deal with essential minerals improvement – the Lentung deposit may present mill feed that begins for years and extends the lifetime of mine. The positioning already has the mining infrastructure wanted for a tungsten operation, together with underground workings, a 1,000 tonnes-per-day mill, 5 permitted tailings containment areas, and a number of waste rock dumps.
The Lentung ore is also utilized by Fireweed Metals (TSXV:FWZ), if it efficiently develops the Mactung deposit right into a mine. In response to a undertaking web page, Fireweed has been awarded USD$15.8 million by the US Division of Protection underneath the Protection Manufacturing Act to advance Mactung.
A 2023 mineral useful resource estimate exhibits 30,156,000 tonnes of contained tungsten grading 0.73% WO3 (Indicated open pit + underground), and seven,205,000 tonnes Inferred at 0.59% WO3 (open pit + underground).
They might in a possible stand alone state of affairs do the identical because the previous operators of Cantung did. Cantung used on-site milling that mixed gravity and flotation circuits to course of its ore. The concentrated tungsten merchandise had been then trucked out by way of the Nahanni Vary Street to Watson Lake within the Yukon. From there, the shipments had been transported to main distribution and market hubs in Edmonton, Alberta, and Vancouver, British Columbia and in the end serving worldwide markets.
Rackla could possibly be destined to play an necessary half in reviving the world-renowned NWT tungsten belt anchored by the Cantung mine and the Mactung deposit – collectively thought-about one of many world’s highest-grade tungsten sources outdoors of China.
This might convey long-term financial alternatives to a area that has seen its prospects dim because of the impending closures of the diamond mines which have supplied as much as a 3rd of Northwest Territories’ GDP.
Rackla’s treasury is now $13 million following a Might 25 financing.
Rackla Metals Inc.
TSXV:RAK
Cdn$0.145 2026.06.24
Shares Excellent 162.9m
Market Cap Cdn$24.1m
RAK web site
Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com
Richard doesn’t personal shares of Rackla Metals Inc. (TSXV:RAK).
RAK is a paid advertiser on his web site aheadoftheherd.com
This text is issued on behalf of RAK
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