LKY produces 93% antimony product in the US - pilot scale tests next
Our US critical minerals Investment Locksley Resources (ASX: LKY) just upgraded raw ore from its US antimony project into products grading up to 93% antimony.
LKY is looking to restart the USA's first antimony mine in decades with its historically producing Desert Antimony Mine in California, which produced antimony during WW1 and WW2.
The mine sits inside LKY's Mojave Project, ~5.5km from $17BN MP Materials' Mountain Pass, the only operating rare earths mine in the USA.
Today's results come from LKY's processing collaboration with Rice University, using DeepSolv technology.
This is a “green”, low-temperature processing tech being developed at Rice as an alternative to traditional smelting which is highly energy intensive.
The lab work showed:
(source)
That last highlight is a key takeaway for us because it supports a single, integrated pathway from ore, through leaching, all the way to antimony metal, which LKY elaborated on here:
(source)
This is exactly what LKY's 100% US "mine-to-market" strategy is built around, taking ore from its own project and processing it using its own developed processing.
The US was estimated by the USGS to have imported 91% of its antimony usage (the rest from domestic recycling). (source)
China which controls ~80% of global antimony processing has cut exports by ~97% (source).
So the US bottleneck isn't just mining but also requires solutions on the processing side of things which LKY has made a key part of its strategy.
Any IP generated through the program is jointly owned by LKY and Rice, so it is able to use it for a potential mining operation (or even just processing).
Just on this, LKY has even designed a conceptual processing plant for the project: Watch: LKY Desert Antimony Mine Restart Plan
Next for this workstream: further process optimisation, solvent recyclability testing and evaluation of pilot-scale equipment (reactors and filtration systems).
What we want to see next from LKY
🔄 Target generation across antimony and rare earth targets
Now with LKY’s first phase of drilling done across its rare earths and antimony targets we want to see all of the exploration data on hand merged into 3D geological models.
Ultimately we want to see LKY define a new set of targets for future drill programs.
Here are the milestones we are tracking:
- 🔲 Integrate the first phase drilling results into updated 3D geological models
- 🔲 Integrate magnetics and gravity datasets
- 🔲 Follow up geophysics + rock chip sampling work
🔲 Product qualification with defence and industrial partners
LKY has now produced both antimony ingots and 99.5% antimony trioxide from its Mojave Project ore.
The next step is getting this product qualified with potential customers - metals traders, defence supply chain participants, and government agencies.
Bench-scale validation of processing and economic assessment is the next milestone for the Rice University program.
LKY has signed partnership agreements with Rice University, Columbia University and Hazen Research.
Broadly, we want to see LKY progress the following across the three partnerships:
- Pilot plant design and metallurgical test work (Hazen and Rice)
- Production of representative samples for US industrial and defence qualification (Hazen)
- Commercial analysis and process optimisation (Hazen and Rice)
- Rare earth processing tech development (being done with Columbia University)
🔲 US government funding decisions
LKY has a US$191M LOI from US EXIM and a US$43M DPA Title III application in play. (source)
With the Pentagon actively deploying capital into antimony projects, we think LKY could be in conversation the next time funding goes out.
