LKY identifies rare earth targets “adjacent $16BN MP Materials”.

Our US critical minerals Investment Locksley Resources (ASX: LKY) is now a few weeks from drilling its rare earths prospects - next door to $16BN MP Materials.

Ahead of that drilling LKY ran some geophysical surveys over its ground and has now ranked two additional rare earth targets.

One to the east of MP Material’s ground and the other to the east of the target LKY will be drilling first:

Over the next ~2-3 months, we can look forward to drilling and sampling newsflow across LKY’s rare earth targets.

If the drilling comes in (and hopefully LKY identifies a few more interesting targets) - LKY can quickly follow them up with more drilling.

LKY drilling for antimony next

Beyond the rare earth targets, LKY will be drilling its antimony targets at the Desert Antimony Mine.

DAM was previously in production during WW1 and WW2 producing between 100 and 1000 tonnes of antimony (source), it was one of the highest grade known antimony occurrences in the US.

LKY already has an exploration target on the project of 772K - 1.38M tonnes at 2.5 - 4.9% antimony for ~19,400 tonnes to 67,700 tonnes of antimony metal.

And a development plan to get the old 4-leveled mine redeveloped.

(as well as a US$191M letter of interest from the US Export Import Bank)

We saw a really good video summary of the development plan here - it's a really good watch for anyone who has 3 minutes to spare:

Locksley Resources - Desert Antimony Processing Facility

We listened in on the webinar yesterday with CEO Kerrie Matthews (which you can check out in full here).

One thing we noticed was the following slide where LKY said it had “submitted a funding application for a US$43M through the Defense Production Act Title III”.

(Source)

LKY’s current market cap is sitting around ~$85M (After the shares from the recent capital raise are issued).

LKY should have ~$17M in cash from the capital raise in addition to its $7M cash from 30 September 2025. (source).

We think that any funding news from the US government, especially if its US$43M application is successful, could lead to a re-rate in LKY’s market cap.

What’s next for LKY?

Drilling (this quarter) 🔄

LKY has begun drilling ground prep works for its rare earths drilling so will be able to drill very soon. (Source)

With the rare earths drill program, LKY plans to test areas where a number of high grade rock chip samples were found, grading 1.20% to 6.87% TREO (rare earths).

Here is where LKY’s initial drilling program is scheduled from a broader view released earlier in the year (antimony in top section, rare earths in the lower):

(Source)

With the antimony drill program to follow, LKY plans to test for the extent of mineralisation near and extending out from the historical antimony mine, testing along the recently seen antimony workings from the LiDAR program results showing the existing adits.

(Source)

We are especially looking forward to seeing if LKY can prove whether or not its Desert Antimony Mine extends over the entire 1.2km of strike mapped earlier in the year…

(Source)

Updates on LKY’s processing tech partnerships 🔄

Now LKY has signed partnership agreements with Rice University, Columbia University and Hazen Research.

With Rice the next stage for this partnership will be to secure a larger licence deal over whatever technology is developed from the R&D agreement.

This will take some time to work out the IP sharing and mutual development of the technology

LKY also recently signed a MOU to develop for processing of its antimony ore with Hazen research.

Hazen Research is a Colorado based R&D firm with 55+ years’ experience. They can provide global laboratory, pilot plant, and analytical services, specialising in developing processing and refining solutions for base and critical minerals.

LKY has now also signed an agreement with Columbia University.

This agreement is focused on the REE processing side.

Between the three partners, LKY is working on:

• Pilot plant design and metallurgical test work
• Production of representative samples for US industrial and defence qualification
• Commercial analysis and process optimisation

Updates on potential funding opportunities🔄

With LKY’s appointment of GreenMet we are looking forward to progress on potential US funding pathways.

LKY recently applied for US$43M through the Defense Production Act Title III, so hope to hear more on the status of this specifically.