Fox Tungsten bets big on a tungsten shortage with no end in sight

Fox Tungsten Ltd (TSX-V:FOXT, OTC:HPYCF, FRA:1HC) is racing to prove its North American asset can become the West's answer to a tungsten shortage that shows no sign of easing.

With two drills turning on a high-grade tungsten resource in British Columbia, a fully funded treasury of about $15 million, and a preliminary economic assessment targeted for the second quarter of 2027, CEO Stephen Gray is trying to move faster than the market can catch up to the story.

That story has changed shape fast. Six months ago, the company was still called Happy Creek Minerals. Now it is Fox Tungsten, with a new name, a rebuilt leadership team, and a resource base it is racing to grow before it locks in its development plan.

The timing lines up with a structural shift in the metal itself: tungsten prices have jumped more than 500% over the past year as China, which controls roughly 80% of global supply, tightens its export restrictions, and Washington moves to secure what little domestic supply exists. In August, the US Department of Commerce moved to restrict exports of tungsten waste and scrap without a license, part of a broader push under the Defense Production Act to secure domestic supply of critical minerals deemed essential to national defense.

A rebuilt company

The past several months have transformed the company from the ground up. Since rebranding, the team rebuilt the C-suite and welcomed new faces in the field. That overhaul was paired with a financing round earlier this year that raised $12.7 million, mostly through flow-through funding, leaving the company fully funded for its current work program. "It was a great vote of confidence from the market," Gray said.

 

With two drills currently turning at the Fox project, the company is running what Gray calls the largest drill program it has ever undertaken, roughly doubling the number of metres ever drilled on the deposit in a single season.

The 20,000-metre program is split across three priorities: about 60% is directed at resource growth at Fox, 30% at earlier-stage, greenfield-style exploration with larger stepouts, and the remaining 10% at the company's Silverboss target.

Gray frames the strategy as two parallel tracks. One is tightly focused stepout drilling meant to grow the existing resource and feed into an updated resource estimate, in support of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) targeted for the second quarter of 2027. The other is a broader hunt to understand just how large the deposit's full mineralized system might be.

That exploration push has already turned up a new zone at Fox North that was previously unknown. Meanwhile, stepout drilling at the RC zone is showing early signs that the deposit's three separate zones may connect into one larger mineralized system, though assay results are still pending.

"It is very exciting to see progress on both fronts," Gray said. "The RC zone is being successfully extended to the south, which supports our hypothesis that we can connect our three separate zones into one larger mineralized system."

Drilling at Fox is expected to continue until late October, with final assays anticipated around Christmas. Only then, Gray said, can the PEA work begin in earnest, though early-stage planning, including scoping metallurgical testing needs, is already underway.

Riding a structural shift in tungsten

Tungsten has long been an overlooked commodity for resource investors, but that is changing fast. Prices have climbed by more than 500% over the past year, a move Gray attributes to a combination of geopolitical tension and a genuine supply and demand imbalance.

“There simply is not enough tungsten available to meet demand,” the CEO said. “We know that because Chinese tungsten prices are also high. If there were a large hidden supply glut in China, we would not be seeing those price levels."

Gray believes tungsten still requires investor education, and he has a preferred way of illustrating just how rich the Fox deposit is. At roughly 1% tungsten, the grade might not sound remarkable at first glance, especially next to something like a 1% copper deposit. But translated into metal-equivalent terms at current spot prices, Gray said, 1% tungsten is roughly equivalent to 20 grams per tonne gold or 25% copper.

"That puts the quality of the asset into perspective," he said. "We have an incredibly high-grade asset in a great location with the right commodity."

For Gray, the rebrand itself has already paid off in terms of clarity. "At a glance, people can understand what the company is about: it is about Fox, it is about tungsten, and it is about what we believe is the highest-grade tungsten resource in the world."

Looking ahead, Gray's focus is on turning exploration success into a real business. "We have successfully identified the deposit, completed the initial resource drilling, established our camp, and got the drills turning. The next step is to turn that exploration success into something tangible."