LKY produces high grade antimony concentrate in the US

Published 08-OCT-2025 14:33 P.M.

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Our Investment Locksley Resources (ASX: LKY) has just produced a high grade antimony concentrate from its Desert Antimony Mine in California.

LKY’s project is in California - next door to $20BN capped MP Materials.

Importantly, LKY’s project is inside US borders where critical minerals supply is scarce.

LKY was able to produce a 68.1% antimony concentrate using a very simple flotation circuit.

We are not metallurgists but over the years we have come to realise that when it comes to processing flowsheets simple is usually best.

LKY also confirmed that with a simple flowsheet it was able to produce an antimony concentrate well above marketable specs which are typically >55%.

In fact it was even getting close to the theoretical max that antimony concentrates can reach (71.68%).

LKY’s concentrate graded 68.1%.

(Source)

We also noted that today’s results were conducted with only 2 preliminary tests, so there is scope for these results to improve further.

We think today’s news is a solid step forward for LKY’s plan to try and get antimony to market as quickly as possible.

Especially from a technical point of view - now LKY can show prospective buyers or financiers that its project’s ore can be turned into a product buyers need…

Antimony is classified as a critical mineral by the US government due to its essential role in defence systems, semiconductors, and energy systems.

At the moment there are no domestic producers of antimony concentrates in the US.

China, Russia and Thailand are the major producers/processors globally controlling more than 90% of the market.

While today’s announcement might be a little bit technical for investors, we would hope industrial buyers (and fingers crossed the US government) would find the news interesting.

LKY will also be testing its antimony with Rice University

Following on from today’s results LKY will be conducting further metallurgical test work to better understand the ore characteristics.

This will involve collecting larger bulk samples for an expanded metallurgical testing program.

Larger volumes of antimony concentrate could then be used for pilot testing and further exploring/evaluating processing techniques.

This program is being rapidly set up through the collaboration with Rice University, which we covered an update on this last week here.

Could today’s announcement open doors to non dilutive financing?

Over the last few weeks we have seen the US government throw cash at equity stakes in critical minerals companies such as:

MP Materials (~15% stake)
Lithium Americas (5%, plus 5% in Thacker Pass JV with General Motors)
Critical metals (~8%, in discussions)
Trilogy metals (10% stake)
USA Rare Earth (in discussions)

The US government is clear in its intent to back domestic critical minerals projects.

Around 6 weeks ago LKY announced the appointment of GreenMet, a Washington DC based strategic advisory group led by Drew Horn.

During Trump's first term, Drew worked in both the Defence and energy departments and after the 2020 election founded GreenMet.

There was an article on him and GreenMet 2 months ago that we found interesting reading.

Read that full article here: Greenland’s Rare-Earth Dreams Are Luring Trump Allies.

The results today and other recent updates including the pieces LKY has put in place (eg the Rice University program), GreenMet would have plenty to work with.

The potential funding pathways GreenMet could have access to with its contacts within Washington DC include:

Department of Energy (DoE) - the DOE was recently given US$1BN of which more than half is for “minerals recycling and processing applications” (Source),
Department of Defence (DoD),
Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) - LKY is in discussions with EXIM already (Source),
Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and;
Department of Interior (DOI) - LKY is also in discussions with the DOI. (Source)

What’s next for LKY?

Drilling (this quarter) 🔄

LKY expects drilling to start this quarter, with first results expected before the end of this year. (Source)

LKY has received approval for its expanded Plan of Operations (“POO”) to be approved (which is LKY expanding the size of its currently permitted drill program).

Here is where LKY’s initial drilling program is scheduled:

(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).

With the antimony drill program, LKY plans to test for the extent of mineralisation near the historical antimony mine.

Secure licence agreement with Rice University 🔄

Now that LKY has signed a partnership agreement with Rice University, the next stage 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.