AW1 hits 430m extension to the USA’s biggest critical mineral indium deposit

Published 09-JUN-2026 12:02 P.M.

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Our US critical minerals Investment American West Metals (ASX: AW1 | OTCQB: AWMLF) just hit more indium from a 430m step-out hole at the USA’s largest undeveloped JORC-compliant indium resource.

AW1 owns 100% of the project which currently has a 33.7Mt @ 20g/t indium for 23.8M ounces of indium (plus zinc, copper, silver and gold).

Only ~35% of the project has been assayed for indium across the historic drilling.

And today with its first hole, AW1 confirmed a discovery ~430m east of and completely outside AW1's existing resource - a 108.4m intercept with grades ABOVE the resource average:

(source)

So AW1’s confirmed its exploration model (based on the ~4km long magnetic anomaly to the east being mineralised - yes there is still ~4km of structure for AW1 to continue testing).

Here is where the intercept came from relative to the existing resource:

(source)

AW1’s project already has the largest undeveloped indium resource in the US…

Indium is a US critical mineral that the country has zero domestic production of and is 100% reliant on imports for - and China, which controls the majority of world supply, placed export restrictions on it in February 2025.

Demand is now being pulled hard by the AI build-out (indium sits at the centre of the optical networks and semiconductors inside data centres).

With the indium price up more than 90% over the past year (from today's announcement) - which is the backdrop to why a large, high-grade US indium resource is of high interest to us.

Intercepts like today confirm that AW1’s project could actually be even bigger than the current resource.

And importantly, there is a gold + base metals kicker too.

The assay result actually averaged 0.34g/t gold which is more than 3x the gold grade of the existing West Desert resource (0.10g/t) and included a peak of 4.79g/t gold.

We have written before that projects pairing a strategic critical metal (like indium) with a predictable-revenue commodity (like gold) tend to be easier to finance - so meaningful gold is a useful addition to the West Desert story.

JP Morgan has been on the record talking about exactly this dynamic when it comes to financing critical minerals projects.

(source)

One thing to keep in mind: this interval sits at roughly 400m vertical depth, and the shallower, up-dip potential AW1 is pointing to still needs to be drilled and confirmed (one hole is a strong signal, not a resource).

The drill program is running 24/7 - and was recently expanded

Today's result is the first of many assays we should see from a drill program AW1 expanded only last month.

Off the back of a $10M raise, AW1 upsized the program to up to 10,000m of diamond drilling - we covered that here:AW1 expands US critical metals drill program to up to 10,000m.

AW1 confirmed today that:

A second diamond rig was arriving to site to accelerate the drilling,
A third hole is already underway ~350m further east of the extensional hole confirmed today, testing the porphyry/skarn contact along the same 4km trend, and
Assays for the second hole (WD26-02) are expected within the next week.

Down-hole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveys are also planned to generate more targets along that contact.

So there is a steady stream of assays and new targets coming over the next few weeks and months.

Why this matters for US indium supply - and AW1's funding chances

The US is the world's second largest importer of indium and is 100% reliant on imports - while China controls the majority of global supply and has restricted exports.

(source - today’s announcement)

At the same time, demand is climbing fast - $7.1 trillion NVIDIA has asked suppliers to increase indium phosphide laser capacity 20x by 2030 and has put US$4BN into US optical-component makers to lock up supply for AI infrastructure. (source)

(source)

Indium is also a defence material (indium tin oxide is used as a stealth coating), which is part of why AW1 attended the Aerospace & Defence 2026 conference in Washington DC.

AW1 said today that it was invited by US Government agencies to discuss West Desert's critical-metal development potential, with those discussions continuing.

And we know that AW1 has mentioned this before - here is MD Dave O'Neill talking about the US funding discussions in a webinar 2 weeks ago.

Skip to 18:43 where he says:

“I can't talk to what is going on behind the scenes. Obviously, there's confidentiality around the US discussions and things like that. John's (Prineas, co founder of AW1 and Non-Executive Director) in Washington DC as we speak... he’s attending the defense and aerospace conference at the moment for critical metals”

The US has been taking direct stakes in the biggest domestic project for each critical mineral ($15BN MP Materials for rare earths, $2BN Lithium Americas for lithium) as examples.

AW1 happens to own the biggest undeveloped indium resource in the country, on 100% private land that offers a faster development pathway than federal ground.

Results like today's - that grow the scale and quality of that resource - only strengthen AW1's case to be the domestic indium supplier the US could back.

Government engagement is what we would love to see - but engagement is not the same as a funding deal (no guarantees of course, this type of process is unpredictable and may never eventuate).

What we want to see next from AW1

🔄US indium-germanium-gallium project (drilling ongoing)

AW1 expects assays from the second hole (WD26-02), “over the next week”. (source)

Results from hole #1 confirmed high grade indium that validated the prior visual results.

Beyond the drilling program we are also looking forward to seeing AW1 upgrade its JORC resource.

Here are the milestones we are tracking for the drill program:

Here are the milestones we are tracking:

✅Drilling commenced
✅First hole hits 77.65m of structure 430m east of resource, along the 4km magnetic anomaly
🔄 Historical core resampling for gallium & germanium.
🔄 Assays from drilling
🔲 Resampling assay results

🔄Strategic / Government Engagement

We also noticed in today’s announcement AW1 attended the Aerospace & Defence 2026 conference in Washington DC and held discussions with senior US Government officials at the White House Complex on West Desert's potential as a domestic critical metals source.

This is the part of the story we're most interested in.

Previously we covered where in a AW1’s MD said during a presentation “We have been approached by the Department of War, Department of Energy and local government to move this forward” (listen to the soundbite here)

The US has been taking direct equity stakes in the biggest domestic project for each critical mineral (MP Materials for rare earths, Lithium Americas for lithium), and AW1 owns the biggest indium resource in the country.

Government engagement is exactly what we want to see - but engagement is not the same as a funding deal (no guarantees of course, this type of process is unpredictable and may never eventuate).

Here are some milestones we are tracking: