{"id":2379,"date":"2025-12-18T15:37:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T15:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/18\/iris-secures-right-to-high-grade-tungsten-project-montana-usa-and-update-on-capital-raising\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T15:37:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T15:37:35","slug":"iris-secures-right-to-high-grade-tungsten-project-montana-usa-and-update-on-capital-raising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/18\/iris-secures-right-to-high-grade-tungsten-project-montana-usa-and-update-on-capital-raising\/","title":{"rendered":"Iris Secures Right to High-grade Tungsten Project, Montana USA and Update on Capital Raising"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><strong>IRIS Metals Limited<\/strong> (ASX: IR1, \u201cIRIS\u201d or \u201cthe Company\u201d) is pleased to announce it has executed a binding Heads of Agreement (HOA) with Finley Mining Inc for the exclusive right to farm-in to the Finley Basin Tungsten Project (Tungsten Project) located in Granite County, Montana, USA. This strategic farm-in opportunity further expands IRIS&#8217; exposure to critical minerals beyond lithium, positioning the Company in a key tungsten district with historical production potential and untapped high-grade tungsten potential in a jurisdiction primed for revival under U.S. critical minerals policies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HIGHLIGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ee-ul\">\n<li>IRIS Metals has signed a binding Heads of Agreement with Finley Mining Inc and its shareholders, granting IRIS an exclusive right to farm-in to the high-grade Finley Basin Tungsten Project, located in Granite County, Montana, USA, subject to the execution of full form farm-in agreements to be negotiated in good faith on the agreed key terms within 40 business days (unless extended).<\/li>\n<li>Due to the transaction materialising during a proposed capital raising program, the Company decided not to raise capital at this point in time, having regard to the strategic merits of the Tungsten acquisition.<\/li>\n<li>Limited drilling undertaken by Union Carbide in the late 1970s\u2013early 1980s resulted in a historical, non-JORC compliant tungsten reserve, 850,000 tons at an average grade of 0.68% WO\u2083<sup>1<\/sup>, which is considered high-grade relative to many global tungsten deposits.<\/li>\n<li>The farm-in provides IRIS with exposure to tungsten, a critical mineral with strategic importance for defense, energy, and industrial applications, complementing IRIS&#8217; existing critical minerals portfolio.<\/li>\n<li>The farm-in structure allows IRIS to earn up to a 100% interest in the project through staged exploration expenditure of up to USD$2,000,000 over 4 years and delivery of a JORC- compliant Inferred Resource.<\/li>\n<li>Exploration activities to commence at the Finley Basin Project in early 2026, focusing on resource definition, expansion, and development studies.<\/li>\n<li>The transaction aligns with IRIS&#8217; strategy to expand its critical minerals footprint in the USA, leveraging incentives for domestically sourced materials. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><strong>IRIS Metals Executive Chairman Peter Marks commented:<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><em>&#8216;This binding agreement marks an exciting step for IRIS as we grow and diversify our critical minerals portfolio into tungsten, a vital component for the defense and technology industries. The Finley Basin Project offers significant upside with its prospective geology and location in a mining-friendly jurisdiction. Combined with our existing South Dakota portfolio, this positions IRIS to capitalise on significantly growing demand for US-sourced critical minerals.&#8217;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Montana Portfolio Expansion and Development<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>IRIS is actively evaluating additional critical mineral opportunities to complement its core South Dakota holdings. This farm-in to the Finley Basin Tungsten Project diversifies IRIS&#8217; assets into tungsten, a critical mineral essential for military energetics, alloys, electronics, and renewable energy technologies, with U.S. demand surging amid defense initiatives and clean energy goals, yet vulnerable to geopolitical supply disruptions.<\/p>\n<p>The expansion of IRIS\u2019 mineral portfolio to tungsten was measured in approach with a number of projects reviewed and compared. The Company selected the Finley Basin Project due to its high-grade characteristics when compared other tungsten occurrences in the US<sup>2<\/sup>, historical exploration results, favourable jurisdiction, potential for expansion of known mineralisation, local milling capabilities, and reasonable proximity to the Company\u2019s South Dakota operations.<\/p>\n<p>IRIS\u2019 primary focus remains on advancing its South Dakota lithium and rubidium projects toward near- term development under its \u201cHub &amp; Spoke\u201d strategy, which emphasises centralized processing across multiple sites.<\/p>\n<p>Recent expansions, including the September 2025 acquisition of the Ingersoll Project from Rapid Critical Metals have significantly grown IRIS&#8217; Black Hills footprint and private land holdings. IRIS is rapidly expanding mineral resources and progressing studies to support a multi-mine production model, with economic analysis targeted for 2026.<\/p>\n<p>This strategic diversification importantly aligns with broader U.S. incentives for domestically sourced critical minerals and supports resilient supply chains under frameworks such as the Australia-U.S. Climate, Critical Minerals and Clean Energy Transformation Compact.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Click here for the full ASX Release<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div>This post appeared first on investingnews.com<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IRIS Metals Limited (ASX: IR1, \u201cIRIS\u201d or \u201cthe Company\u201d) is pleased to announce it has executed a binding Heads of Agreement (HOA) with Finley Mining Inc for the exclusive right to farm-in to the Finley Basin Tungsten Project (Tungsten Project) located in Granite County, Montana, USA. This strategic farm-in opportunity further expands IRIS&#8217; exposure to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bondsandfonds.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}