AW1 to sample USA largest indium deposit for gallium

Our US critical minerals Investment American West Metals (ASX: AW1) just started a resampling program over its giant indium deposit.

AW1’s project as it stands is already the biggest indium deposit in the USA.

AW1’s current resource is based on assay results from ~35% of the drilling done on its project.

Today, AW1 kicked off a resampling program on some of the old drilling that weren’t previously assayed for indium (or any other critical minerals like gallium).

AW1 explicitly said that it would focus on those two and that assays would be out in 3-4 weeks.

With respect to gallium… only 5% of drilling at AW1’s project has been tested for gallium with one hole returning 552m of gallium at a peak grade of 77.3g/t…

So inside the next 3-4 weeks we could see AW1 show the market two things:

1. That its indium resource could be even bigger than is currently estimated, and
2. The project has the potential to host a large gallium resource.

We think AW1’s indium resource alone is enough to put its project in the running for US government funding…

IF AW1 can show it also has gallium to go with it then it could mean AW1’s project becomes even more interesting in the eyes of the US government.

And interestingly, AW1’s Managing Director Dave O’Neil said the following on a recent webinar with respect to its US indium project:

“We have been approached by the Department Of War, Department of Energy and local government to move this forward” (source)

(Watch the full AW1 presentation on their indium project here)

What are indium and gallium?

Indium is listed as a critical mineral in the USA’s critical minerals list from 2022. (Source)

At the moment China controls ~70% of all global production…

(Source)

China actually explicitly included indium in the list of ~5 critical minerals that it would restrict exports on back in February.

(Source)

The US has no domestic indium production and is 100% dependent on imports…

Indium’s primary use case is in things like touchscreens and TV’s but indium is becoming more and more important in next-generation semiconductors used in data center infrastructure.

The reason the Pentagon would be interested (and why it caught our attention) is because indium is also critical for the US military…

Indium is used in things like Infrared detectors, night vision systems, Missile guidance systems, Radar systems and F-35 fighter jets…

Gallium is used to create high-performance semiconductors essential for AI because of its thermal and electrical properties compared to traditional silicon.

Again, the USA has zero domestic gallium production.

Again, China controls ~98% of global gallium supply. (Source)

And again, China put on gallium export controls back in December last year. (source)

Importantly, both indium and gallium are listed as critical minerals on the USA’s critical minerals list. (source)

The 11 reasons why we Invested in AW1

Here is a brief overview of the 11 reasons why we Invested in AW1 from our initiation note on the 16th of October 2025.

To see the deep dive on the reasons check out our note here.

1. AW1 has the biggest indium (critical mineral) resource in the USA
   
   
2. Indium is listed as one of the 12 strategic defence critical minerals in the US
   
   
3. China dominates global supply and has placed export restrictions on indium
   
   
4. The US has no domestic production and is 100% reliant on imports for indium
   
   
5. AW1’s deposit could get bigger, only 35% of deposits’ drill cores assayed for indium so far
   
   
6. AW1’s deposit might also have Gallium/Germanium potential
   
   
7. Capital is flowing into US critical metals macro thematic
   
   
8. AW1 can follow the “US market listing playbook”
   
   
9. We are backing John Prineas here
   
   
10. AW1 hasn’t yet run like most other US critical Minerals stocks
    
    
11. We think AW1’s copper asset more than underpins its current valuation

What do we want to see AW1 do next?

Sampling of previous drilling on US critical minerals project 🔄

We are looking forward to the results from the resampling on the US asset.

We are especially looking forward to seeing if the indium resource gets bigger AND if AW1 can define a large gallium resource to go with its current resources.

Results from the sampling are expected in 3-4 weeks.

(Source)

Pre Feasibility Study (PFS) for Canadian copper project 🔄

We are mainly Invested in AW1 for its US critical minerals project.

But we are also looking forward to news from the company’s Canadian copper project.

We want to see AW1 deliver a pre-feasibility study and key permits related to developing the project.

Here are the milestones we will be tracking:

🔄 Pre Feasibility Study

🔄 Environmental Studies

🔄 Mining/development permits