Lance Glinn:

Welcome into another episode of the Inside the ICE House podcast. Today's guest is Oliver Friesen. He is the CEO of Guardian Metal Resources. Oliver, thanks so much for joining us Inside the ICE House. Happy to have you here.

Oliver Friesen:

Yeah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Lance Glinn:

So I want to put some context on the conversation as we get underway. Give us just the big picture overview of Guardian Metal Resources. What is the mission and what problem are you ultimately trying to solve with the critical minerals landscape?

Oliver Friesen:

Yeah, so we are trying to solve what I describe as the "tungsten crisis" that is currently occurring on American soil. So Guardian Metal Resources is a company that's focused on bringing two projects, both located on American soil, into production during the current administration. So both of our assets lands are past producing tungsten mines, both of them are in Nevada, as I mentioned, and both of them can be material producers and suppliers of tungsten material to support the defense industrial base, but also the wider industry in the United States who desperately needs this metal. So it's a very important journey that we are on right now.

We received an investment directly from the Department of War to complete a key engineering study. That study is now done. So now as we sit here, July of 2026, our goal and our plan is to move both of these projects through the key engineering steps and into commercial production before the end of the current administration.

Lance Glinn:

And you mentioned Nevada. Different regions obviously come to mind when it comes to mining here in the US, and I've talked to people that focus on areas on the East Coast. Obviously you're more focused on the West Coast, or at least that general region. What makes the area and just the surrounding region of it such a compelling, I should say, jurisdiction for critical mineral development?

Oliver Friesen:

Yeah, it's an interesting one. I've spent more than 15 years of my career working around the globe in mining and exploration, so I've experienced a lot of different jurisdictions and I've understood the challenges of certain jurisdictions, the positives of other jurisdictions. And what I can very confidently say sitting here right now, and this is not just me saying this, this is a consistent ranking through the Fraser Institute, which talks and looks at the most favorable jurisdictions in the entire world for mining. A lot of jurisdictions, it's very hard to get things done. Other jurisdictions, you can get things done because the government and the legislators around that area, or in this case, in the state of Nevada, understand the importance of this industry.

Nevada is, once you leave Reno and Las Vegas, which is obviously you go there to gamble and for tourism, as soon as you leave Reno or Las Vegas, for anyone of your listeners who've done that, it's all mining. As soon as you leave, you pass mine after mine. It's small town supporting mine after small town supporting mine. So importantly, as we sit here now looking to bring these projects into production, it's such an important part of our story in that both of our assets are located in a jurisdiction, in Nevada, in this case, that understands mining. They understand how to support mining companies. Needs to be done responsibly. There's no shortcuts here. But a jurisdiction who knows how to help companies permit, a local workforce who can actually build and help operate mines, that all exists in Nevada.

Lance Glinn:

Yeah, no, I've been to Vegas before, as you were saying, and I know next time I go, I'm going to have to do some driving outside of the city and see what other small towns and mines come my way as I travel through the state.

Now, obviously, critical minerals have become a national conversation as of late, and that has centered around supply chains, it's centered around reshoring, strategic independence, obviously some things that have come into focus in recent years. From your point of view, why has domestic supply here become such an urgent issue for both policymakers and industry leaders?

Oliver Friesen:

Yeah, I think the way I answer that is we have to go back a little bit to understand how we got into this position. We've heard a lot of conversations and headlines about critical metals and rare earths over the last, I would say, probably year, year and a half. And what happened ultimately to get us to this position, Lance, is we have sort of made mining to be a bad word. Mining is bad. We don't want to mine. It's a bad industry. There's environmentally, all that kind of stuff. We've turned the Western world against mining.

And what's happened at the same time as that is China and the likes of some of the countries overseas have said, "That's totally fine. We're happy to mine the metals here in China, in that case, or at some of the other countries in Asia." So what's happened is we've lost market share of some of these key critical metals, and we've pushed it overseas to China, which is a country that has been very willing to subsidize their mining industry. So they're willing to ensure production by giving money or supporting some of these tungsten mines, making it very difficult for other Western world projects to compete.

But what that means now, as we sit here today, July of 2026, the US has zero mine production of tungsten, the US has not operated a single tungsten mine for over 10 years, and on top of that, and this is an incredible stat, China, Russia, and North Korea, so those three countries, combined for almost 90% of total global mine supply of tungsten. So we've stopped mining on American soil. That mining and that production of metals has gone overseas, in this case to China, Russia, and North Korea. And as we sit here now, demand for this metal for defense, for chips, for aerospace, for drilling bits, you name it, the list goes on and on, we need more and more tungsten to serve these industries, but we rely on China.

And what China did back in February of last year, 2025, is they announced an outright export ban of tungsten to any country in the world. So since February of last year, effectively zero tungsten units have left Chinese borders. So we're at the position now, we've pushed the mining overseas, and now we've recognized, "Oh, wait, that's actually a really bad position because we're seeing now manufacturing in the United States have to shut down because they can't secure the rare earths and the tungsten and the antimony that they need." Because without the critical metals and without the actual supply chain, you can't manufacture, you can't build a car, you can't build a phone, you can't build a fighter jet, you name it, the list goes on and on and on. So that's why there's so much talk about it because we've made mistakes, we've pushed these critical industries offshore.

However, we can fix it. We have great workforces, we have great mines, many of them which have shut down. We have great governments who can get behind projects. So the whole narrative has shifted. We've really done a 180 here, and that's why the timing of Guardian is so exciting because we're looking to push forward these projects at a time now where we've recognized, "Okay, mining actually isn't a bad thing. It's actually a really good thing, and without it, national security is at stake."

Lance Glinn:

And I think it's important to put into context, Oliver, because you mentioned the national security aspects of it. You mentioned the stat that Russia, North Korea, and China have, I think you said, over 90% of the world's tungsten production. It's important to put into context just how detrimental that could be for the average person, because, again, there is the national security aspect of it, but the average person isn't always dealing with the national security implications or what it's used for in national security. We're dealing with the things that we use on our everyday basis. So can you just explain how the average person, like myself sitting in this chair, how it would impact us and the consequences on us if this domestic supply chain isn't brought back up to speed?

Oliver Friesen:

Yeah, it's a great question. And I think we're going to be finding out the answer to that question sooner rather than later, because what we've seen, Lance, is typically consumers of tungsten, so we look at some of the major companies on American soil who need tungsten for their various manufacturing, they typically will buy stockpiles of tungsten. They don't phone their supplier every day, "Hey, I need my tungsten this morning." They'll buy 3, 6, 9, 12 months of raw materials so they can continue manufacturing. So what we're seeing now is we're far enough beyond the original export ban where some of these companies have now run out of those stockpiles and they're phoning their supplier saying, "Hey guys, we need X amount of tons of tungsten oxide." In a lot of cases, that material's not available now.

Now, there is still tungsten available and it is flowing to certain companies, but it's becoming very difficult to get your hands on it. So without the advent of new supply coming online, we're going to see more and more manufacturing shutdown on American soil, and that's the point where we really start to understand the importance that this has on national security.

So as an example, now, regardless of which side of the political aisle you sit on, the United States, the stockpiles of munitions in this country, we've seen articles now that they are being depleted. There's a war in the Middle East, there's war in Russia, Ukraine. Tungsten is required for munitions. So where we're at now is the country, the United States is looking to re-armor, build stockpiles of munitions up again. And at the end of the day, without tungsten, you cannot do that. So we're going to see there's discussion and efforts and conversations around building up stockpiles of munitions to support national security. And at the end of the day, if that material, those raw materials are not available, you cannot build those things.

So how it's going to affect the average everyday person, I think we're at the point now, we're far enough away from the Chinese export ban, prices are going to go up. We're seeing that now with inflation picking up again, just for things like if you want to go to the hardware store and buy a drill bit to drill or build something at your home, that's tungsten, that's going to go up, that's becoming more expensive. But more importantly, you look at some of the critical industries that need it, chips. You cannot produce chips without tungsten. Solar, wind, automotive, electric vehicles, aerospace. If Boeing wants to build a new 777 jet or the military wants to build an F-35, you can't do it without tungsten.

So we're at this critical juncture now where if we don't quickly find solutions for this industry, we're going to start to really see the consequences of that. We're starting to see it now. And that's why I think the Guardian Metal Resources' story is so important, is here we are sitting here in middle of 2026, and we have two projects, both past producing, that we believe we can bring online before the end of 2028. So we can help supply tungsten to the critical industries that need it from two mines on American soil. And that's why our story, I think, right here right now, is such an important one.

Lance Glinn:

And look, Oliver, I'm sure I'm not telling you anything that's surprising, but I want to pivot the conversation a little bit to you, because tungsten and what you do and the company that you oversee, and again, I'm sure I'm not telling you anything that's surprising, but it's not something that a lot of people grow up envisioning doing.

Oliver Friesen:

Sure. Yeah.

Lance Glinn:

What first got you interested, not just in tungsten, say, but just the mining overall and then ultimately evolved into, "There's this issue that we're having with tungsten, this is something that I want to participate in solving"?

Oliver Friesen:

Yeah, tungsten, I kind of fell into it a little bit. 4 or 5 years ago when I started Guardian Metal Resources, what I did is I looked at the supply chain and what became very clear about the supply chain was tungsten was, number one, a metal of which the supply side was very precarious, China, Russia, North Korea, 90%, and on the demand side, we were seeing tremendous growth across multiple segments. Automotive, aerospace, defense, advanced manufacturing, advanced technologies, we needed more and more tungsten. The US had no mine, so I thought, "You know what? Let's be contrarian here and let's purchase projects on American soil that, at some point in the future, if the US wants to mine this metal, we're going to be an important part of that solution."

So that's kind of how we got to the tungsten story. But before that, how I got into mining, I'm a geologist by trade, so I went to school for geology, and a lot of first-year students in university, no idea what to do. You're young, you're impressionable. Your dad's this, your mom does that. "Where do I go? What is my life going to look like?" I kind of stumbled into geology. My grandma actually likes to take credit. She used to take me to the rock and gem shows in Palm Springs, so I used to grow up and go to these shows or whatever.

So anyways, I ended up tripping into geology. And sure enough, the industry is in such a dire need of good geological and technical expertise. That's one of the issues we're facing now in America is we need good people to actually find mines and build mines. So I kind of stumbled into it. And sure enough, the industry was in such high demand for geologists that I remember the first year that I was a geologist, so first year university, I got out of summer break, and I got flown up to Northern Canada, actually, to the Yukon Territory, which is right next to Alaska. I got put on a helicopter, I got flown into the middle of the bush, and for 93 days straight, I worked as a soil sampling geologist. Whatever had to be done at this camp that was looking for a new tin mine, I did it. So I got my feet wet that way. And that summer I got chased by grizzly bears and the mosquitoes are like you never imagined ever in your life.

Lance Glinn:

I was going to ask, what is that experience like? Because that is such a far away, I would think, remote area.

Oliver Friesen:

It's wild.

Lance Glinn:

That it's got to be almost like once in a lifetime.

Oliver Friesen:

It's some of the best days and some of the worst days of your life. You fly in a helicopter to the top of a mountain range and there's wild mountain goats and bears running around, and it's the most beautiful place that no one has ever stepped. Those days are great. And then the next day you're down in the swamp and you're getting chased by moose and there's 50,000 mosquitoes trying to bite you. So there's good and the bad, but importantly, I learned the industry from boots-on-the-ground up.

So as I sit here now as a CEO, I used to do the stuff that our guys are doing onsite in Nevada right now. So I got the bug, so to say, and I learned the industry and I understood the value that can be created from a project that goes from exploration into development into mining. And that's what we're doing now at Guardian, is we have two projects. We're past the expiration stage now, we're into the development, and our plan is to now bring these into commercial production. And the value creation that can happen once we can start to sell tungsten to the critical industries that need it, that's what drives us. That's why we get out of bed every day. So it's been an interesting journey. I spent the first 13 years really focused in the field, so living in remote parts of Nevada, Idaho, Canada, Alaska, learned the industry that way out, and then I moved into more corporate roles and then founded Guardian and take a lot of that experience of how to run projects efficiently on the ground to what we're doing here at Guardian Metal.

Lance Glinn:

In your opinion, can you be a leader, a CEO of a company like Guardian Metal Resources without having the experience, that boots-on-the-ground experience? Because I would think that knowing what the men and women on the ground are doing and having experienced it yourself is of the utmost importance because you can relate, then. I feel like this is such an industry in which relationships and being able to relate to those employees of Guardian is so important. So to have had that same experience, I would think it'd be very hard to do your job without it.

Oliver Friesen:

Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely biased, but I think if you did a survey of all the successful mining companies globally and looked at what the makeup of their management team was, and specifically the CEO, I would say, more often than not, the successful CEOs are ones that come from a technical background, whether that's geology or mining engineering. Because obviously an important part of what we do is the accounting. We have a fantastic CFO, we have a government relations piece, which our fantastic chairman runs, we have the compliance and all that other bits and pieces. Those are all so important for what we do.

But I do agree that I would say, obviously with my biased view, that I think the best CEOs in the mining space are individuals with that deep-rooted technical experience. We need lawyers, we need accountants, we need finance people, we need all those people to build a well-rounded business, but in my experience, that's been the case.

I think you mentioned that mutual respect. And as someone who's been there, done that, I understand what our guys in Nevada, in the Western United States go through on a day-to-day basis. A lot of them live onsite for weeks on end. They're away from their families. They're in Nevada right now. It's 90 plus degrees in Nevada right now. So they're in the elements, they're away from their families, but they're also, I think, bought into the importance of these two projects to support national security in the United States. And when we speak, and I go to site regularly and meet with the guys, and we work very closely together given that's the part of the industry and the company that I really, really relate to, we have, I think, a good mutual respect for each other because I'm not some accountant or lawyer barking orders from the corporate office. I'm actually a guy who's been there, done that, and can relate to what these guys are going through.

So the benefit of that is I think we've built an absolutely fantastic technical team. The group of guys on the ground in Nevada are super experienced, they're super good at what they do, and our success with those projects is only dictated by the quality of the team we have on the ground. Given the flurry of activity in the mining industry, it's becoming more and more challenging to find good talent to support these projects. And you can't do a drill program, you can't build a mine without good people, and at Guardian, I think one of the best parts of our story is the team we've built in Nevada, in the Western United States. We're actually focused on delivering the key objectives for these projects from the current status and into commercial production.

Lance Glinn:

And you mentioned a couple answers ago the thought of being a contrarian, of how you saw this opportunity in tungsten that others maybe were not necessarily going after. When you are sitting thinking about what you want to do, what you want to focus on, you notice tungsten, being a contrarian, is that a scary thing for you or is that motivating? I could see it being scary because there's no one else in it, all eyes on you type of thing, but also motivating because you understand the importance of it and understand that if you can accomplish this, you can set up the country as a whole for a lot of good moving forward.

Oliver Friesen:

I totally agree. I think it's both. We first acquired Pilot Mountain, which is one of our co-flagship assets in Nevada about four and a half years ago. This is at a time where the United States bought most of their tungsten from China, and so for us to take a view as a team that we were going to take a risk and buy an asset that no one else was looking at, and then try to raise money and get people to buy into the idea that, at some point, the US is going to need to mine this metal on American soil to support all of the key industries that need this metal. So in the first 3 1/2 years, I would say it was scary, but also it was just quite challenging, trying to convince people to care about this metal that they hadn't cared about forever.

3 years ago, no one was talking about tungsten. That's changed completely. So the first 3 1/2 years, it was difficult. We had to turn over every stone. We had to convince investors of our thesis and our narrative, which is that we do need this metal mined in American soil. And then I think really when China announced the export van a year and a half ago, it was quite vindicating. We had been saying, "Guys, we're too reliant on China for this metal. They can weaponize this supply chain. They may do it. They've done it with other metals," and then it happened. And I don't think it's a good thing that that happened, but I think it shined a really important light on what we had been saying for so many years, which is we just can't be so reliant on China for this metal.

So scary to start. It's vindicating now. And now with these fantastic tailwinds and interest in this really important metal, we have such a great window now to deliver production and development of these two really key assets on American soil.

Lance Glinn:

And so I want to talk about the role of partnership. And recently you announced the partnership with Montana, or the Montana Mining Association. First and foremost, how did this partnership come together and what capabilities does it provide Guardian that you may have not had before? What does it provide you moving forward?

Oliver Friesen:

Yeah, so what we're looking to do there, Lance, is we have, as we've mentioned, there's two projects. So Pilot Mountain is about 2, 2 1/2 hours southeast of Reno, Nevada. And then our other project called Tempiute, it's about 2 1/2 hours northwest of Las Vegas. Tempiute was one of the largest producing tungsten mines in America in the 1980s. The only reason that mine shut down was China ended up flooding the market with cheap tungsten and killed a lot of the Western world projects that were in operation. So what that means is the mine shut down very quickly. Like, if you go to the office now that still is on site, there's production records from the day it shut down with dust on them. It shows you how quickly they're like, "Okay, guys, we're out of here. The Chinese have killed the price and we're not doing this anymore."

So what's unique about that is because the mine shut down so quickly, what they left were stockpiles of legacy tungsten ore across the project. So material that they were going to send to the mill, but they didn't get the chance because the mine shut down on such short notice.

Importantly, we're facing a severe tungsten crisis right now in America. We don't know where all the tungsten is going to come from to support oil and gas drilling, to support defense, to support chips, to support SpaceX, companies who all need this metal, so we have taken it upon ourselves, as obviously we're looking to deliver commercial production from both assets, but we're also looking at creative ways to help support some of these key industries a lot sooner. 2028 we believe is the nearest-term production on American soil. It's not quick enough. How can we start to fill the gap? And one of the ways is with those stockpiles.

So we've entered into a partnership with Montana Mining Association and a group called the Army Research Lab, which is a government partner. And what we're looking to do here is show and demonstrate to the US public and the US government, we have all of the ingredients on American soil today to support mining, processing, and consumption of tungsten. So much of the conversation right now, Lance, about critical metals is, "Can we actually do this on American soil? Sure, we can maybe mine some rare earths. Does that need to go to China for processing?" That still represents a major issue. Tungsten, we have everything we need right now on American soil. We have the legacy ore in piles at site at Tempiute north of Las Vegas.

So with this partnership, we're going to send a trial amount of material, up to 400 tons of tungsten legacy ore. There's a mine and a mill in Montana it's going to go to. The plan is for them to then take that material and look to tweak and alter their mill and processing facility to effectively recover tungsten into the form of a tungsten concentrate. If that is successful, what will happen then is the concentrate will be sent to a processing company in US who can turn that into tungsten metal powder, and that powder will then go to Army Research Lab for the various reasons they need tungsten.

If this whole pilot operation is successful, we want to send more of our stockpiles for an expanded operation. So just to be clear, the key objectives at Guardian Metal is the delivery of both of our two tungsten mines on American soil. But this is a unique opportunity that we have with this project to potentially start to support the defense industrial base with tungsten units before commercial production from both of our assets. So it's a really unique partnership. We have a few steps to go through there to make sure they can effectively recover tungsten. If successful, we can expand the program and look to grow this part of the business.

Lance Glinn:

And just in terms of broader partnerships as a whole, how important are these kinds of collaborative efforts in accelerating what you do? Because everything that you want to accomplish, obviously you could do great things on your own, but when you're working with someone like the Montana Mining Association, I would think it just amplifies what you're able to do and amplifies the potential. So how important broadly, not just with this one, but overall, are these partnerships in not just reaching your goals, but even exceeding them further?

Oliver Friesen:

They're everything. And I think a ton of credit to the administration who's come in and really made it clear how important it is to start mining metals on American soil again. You mentioned partnership. Montana Mining Association was really the glue here that brought the various parties together. That's such an important thing that they do. Nevada Mining Association, who we work very closely with, they're trying to support companies like Guardian Metal. Mining is a tough thing to do. You're in remote parts of the world. It's challenging. There's things that come up. So to have these groups who can all get together and say, "Let's work together on solving this," is so important. And obviously one of the key partners that we have is the Department of War who was able to invest $6.2 million in supporting the pre-feasibility study that we just completed. So there's a collaborative effort here across different parts of the supply chain, government and industry working together, and that's how we're going to solve this.

Lance, we can never go back to the point where the US mines no tungsten and we rely on China. We've seen what happens in that scenario. So it's on us, it's on us to work with government partners and other private groups to solve this crisis. We think we can be a big part of the solution. But the work we're doing with Montana Mining, with Army Research Lab, with the Department of War, Nevada Mining, you name it, the list goes on and on and on, we are all working towards a common and collective goal of solving the critical metal crisis that we're facing here in the United States.

Lance Glinn:

So, Oliver, as we begin to wrap up our conversation, if we were to look and fast-forward 5 years from now, what does success look like? Is it that successful operations of both projects as of 2028 and beyond? What does success look like for you 5 years from now, if we're talking again in 2031?

Oliver Friesen:

Success is we successfully build and ramp up both of our tungsten mines. If and when we are able to do that, there are other things that we want to do as our grander ambition to continue to grow this business. But as we sit here right now, we need to focus on delivering those two mines.

When we look at what that can mean for national security, I think we've gone through the importance, but looking at the PFS study we've just completed for one of our projects, one of our projects, at the current price of tungsten, the economics detailed in that PFS that were pre-feasibility study, detail that, in the first full year of production, Pilot Mountain would generate over $550 million of EBITDA. So national security is a key driver here, but also from an actual economic standpoint, the economics that the PFS detailed for Pilot Mountain are very, very robust. So that's another important thing here is we need to deliver value for shareholders. We do that by delivering mines, cash flowing, and returning that in some capacity to shareholders.

So in 5 years time, we want to see both of these mines in production. We want to see us generating cashflow, delivering value to our shareholders, all the while supporting critical industries in the United States who need this critical metal.

Lance Glinn:

And when you look at the future of Guardian Metal Resources, the future of tungsten, the future of American critical mineral independence, what gives you the most optimism moving forward?

Oliver Friesen:

I would say the policy shift that we've seen in mining. I've spent, as we talked about my whole career in mining, I've worked in Africa, I've worked in Australia, I've worked in Canada, I've worked in the United States. What is so encouraging as I sit here now, you can probably even tell with my enthusiasm, Lance, talking about this story, is so often when you're trying to push these projects forward, there's so many things that feel like they're trying to stop you from doing what you're doing. There's so many headwinds in this industry already. And I've worked in so many jurisdictions where people want you to fail, which is why we are where we are. We don't mind the metals we need to support Boeing and Schlumberger and Baker Hughes and Lockheed Martin and SpaceX. We don't have the metals we need because we've made it difficult. We've created these headwinds that these companies... It's already a tough industry, so we've made it even more difficult.

But as I sit here now, I have so much optimism about how those have shifted from headwinds to tailwinds. And we have government and we have investors and we have people across the entire United States who understands the criticality of this industry, the criticality of these metals. And to be able to move through now from development into commercial production, to have that framework behind us now and not in front of us pushing against us gives me so much optimism that we will be successful, but also other companies looking to also solve other metals for the US defense industrial base and industrial base will also have success. And this means that 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now, what we hope will happen is the United States will mine 70% of the tungsten they need or 80% of the rare earths they need, and they'll be great job creators and they'll be done in an environmentally friendly way, and they'll be done in the right way with the right people supporting industry, supporting jobs.

That's the dream here. And we can be a huge part of that with this metal that we think, as it sits right now, is probably one of the most important in the US and globally right now.

Lance Glinn:

Well, Oliver, I can certainly sense the enthusiasm and the optimism and the passion, most importantly, through your words. Thank you so much for the conversation. Thank you so much for joining us Inside the ICE House.

Oliver Friesen:

Yeah, thanks so much.