Trigg Mines Deep into America’s Tungsten Heartland with Strategic Nevada Play

Trigg Minerals (ASX: TMG) has made a decisive move to cement its place in the US critical minerals sector, staking its claim over the lion’s share of the historic Nightingale Tungsten District in Nevada. This adds serious weight to its American portfolio, already bolstered by the Tennessee Mountain and Antimony Canyon projects.

The newly acquired ground covers a three-mile stretch of highly mineralised trend, including a string of past-producing tungsten mines, the standout being the Alpine Mine. The Alpine produced 564,000 pounds of 70 percent tungsten trioxide (WO₃) concentrate between 1943 and 1946, feeding wartime demand. That production came when tungsten fetched around US$4,000 per tonne — a far cry from today’s benchmark of more than US$49,000 per tonne.

Trigg has also secured the Garfield Force Mine, a historic operation showing remaining grades up to 1.0 percent WO₃, with mineralisation running along a one-mile strike. Together, the Alpine and Garfield mines anchor what Trigg Managing Director Andre Booyzen describes as a “district-scale tungsten province in a Tier-1 jurisdiction.”

“This is a transformative move for Trigg,” Booyzen said. “With the high-grade Alpine Mine as a new anchor asset and multiple walk-up drill targets at Garfield and other prospects, we have a clear pathway to defining a major JORC-compliant resource and establishing a strategic US-based supply of this critical metal.”

The potential does not stop at past production. The Nightingale claims include numerous underexplored prospects, such as the Mammoth Claim, where historical visual estimates suggested grades of up to 1 percent WO₃ in scheelite-rich limestone, and a high-grade polymetallic prospect with silver, lead, zinc and bismuth credits.

Historical drilling by the US Bureau of Mines in the 1940s demonstrated that mineralisation persists at depth, with all nine drillholes intersecting the tungsten-bearing tactite horizon well below the shallow workings. Yet the deepest mine in the district only reached 39 metres, leaving significant room for down-plunge expansion.

Geologically, the tungsten sits within a classic skarn system, where a granodiorite intrusion meets reactive limestone, forming scheelite-rich tactite zones. These zones are steeply dipping and extend along contact boundaries, an ideal structural setting for systematic exploration.

To leverage this, Trigg plans to build a modern 3D geological model from digitised historical data and kick off field mapping and channel sampling. A maiden diamond drilling program is on the cards, targeting the Alpine and Garfield sites to deliver a JORC resource.

Meanwhile, the company is preparing for imminent drilling at its Antimony Canyon and Tennessee Mountain projects. The latter has already turned heads with historical intersections such as 24.9 metres at 0.65 percent WO₃ and 2.13 metres at a staggering 2.06 percent WO₃. These programs are fast-tracked through the use of existing disturbed ground and patent claims, streamlining permitting processes.

Tungsten is classified as a critical mineral in the United States, due to its role in military and industrial applications including missile components, aircraft turbines, and armour-piercing ammunition. Yet global supply is heavily dominated by China, making Trigg’s US foothold particularly strategic.

With drill rigs poised, historical grades offering blue-sky upside, and demand for tungsten growing in both defence and green tech industries, Trigg has given itself a strong hand. The company is not just digging into the past — it is laying the groundwork for a resource future with geopolitical clout.