IDEX Metals (TSXV: IDEX; US-OTC: IDXMF) has found broad tungsten mineralization at its Freeze copper project in Idaho, giving the junior a second critical-metals angle at an early-stage copper play.
Vancouver-based IDEX said two re-assayed holes at Freeze’s Kismet target returned 180.5 metres grading 0.11% tungsten trioxide (WO3) from 52 metres in hole KSMT25002. Hole KSMT25005 returned 72.2 metres at 0.13% WO3 from 182.6 metres depth. A higher-grade interval in hole KSMT25005 cut 1.21 metres at 1.55% WO3 from 213.52 metres.
Freeze, which straddles Idaho’s Washington and Adams counties, is located about 125 km north of state capital Boise.
“These tungsten re-assay results have meaningfully changed how we view the Kismet system,” CEO Clayton Fisher said in a Thursday release. “We already understood Kismet to be a robust copper-molybdenum system. Confirming broad tungsten enrichment with high-grade internal zones, supported by visible coarse scheelite, adds an entirely new and important critical-metals dimension to the property.”
Tungsten has become a supply risk in the United States, which has not mined the metal commercially since 2015 and imports more than half its needs. For IDEX, proving tungsten in more holes could broaden investor interest in Freeze as Idaho’s copper belt draws larger miners and better-funded juniors.
IDEX’s Toronto-listed shares were unchanged Friday at C37¢ apiece, giving the company a market capitalization of $28.3 million (US$20 million). They surged 7.4% Thursday.
Assay Method
IDEX picked holes KSMT25002 and KSMT25005 as test cases after crews last year logged scheelite, a tungsten-bearing mineral, in drill core. The company used sodium peroxide fusion, a lab method that breaks down scheelite more fully than the four-acid digestion used for the first round of assays.
The change mattered most in higher-grade material. Across 579 matched samples, IDEX said four-acid digestion broadly matched the new method at low to moderate grades but missed much of the tungsten in stronger samples. The highest sample returned 1,070 parts per million (ppm) tungsten under the old method and 12,300 ppm under sodium peroxide fusion, equal to 1.55% tungsten trioxide.
Early stage
The tungsten results do not yet make Freeze a tungsten project. They come from two holes, true widths are unknown and IDEX has no resource estimate at Kismet.
Still, the re-assays add a new target to a system that the company had framed mainly around copper and molybdenum. Drilling last year cut copper mineralization in all six Kismet holes, including 101 metres grading 1.02% copper from surface in KSMT25002 within a longer 420-metre interval at 0.37% copper, company materials show.
Idaho context
Freeze covers 128 sq. km, including a 115 sq. km Idaho state mineral lease, in a belt that gained market attention after Barrick Mining (TSX: ABX; NYSE: B) invested $23 million (C32.5 million) in Hercules Metals (TSXV: BIG; US-OTC: BADEF) following the Leviathan copper discovery in 2023.
Kismet forms part of a 1.8-km mineralized corridor that includes the North Breccia copper target and the Frostfall gold target farther north, IDEX says. Previous work found copper mineralization stronger near the top of the system, molybdenum increasing at depth and tungsten spread through the drilled intervals. The company has described the setting as a porphyry-style copper-molybdenum system with possible co-product metals.
Next steps
IDEX plans to re-assay the four remaining 2025 Kismet holes for tungsten using sodium peroxide fusion, then use the results and a completed 90.4-line-km induced polarization survey to hone its focus on new drill targets across Freeze.
This year’s field program has passed 500 metres of drilling. The company had collected 1,084 soil samples and 73 rock samples, while a second rig is expected to start shallow holes at Kismet soon. Another rig is testing the North Breccia copper target.
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