LKY produces pure spec antimony product with material sourced from its own project
Our US critical minerals Investment Locksley Resources (ASX: LKY) just produced 99.5% purity antimony trioxide from its Desert Antimony Mine in California.
Antimony trioxide is the most commonly traded form of antimony and it's a critical input for defence technologies.
It's the precursor material for things like munitions primers, flame retardants for military vehicles/equipment, military electronics, and even nuclear weapons production.
Basically, all of the things that are likely to be in the forefront of the US military (and governments) minds with everything happening in the Middle East right now.
The US military especially who will be wanting to make sure it has secure domestic supply of defence critical minerals…
Antimony trioxide goes into a LOT of what the US military needs, right now, and the US has almost zero domestic capability to produce it (something LKY is aiming to change in the near term).
The US imports ~85% of its antimony, with China controlling the bulk of global supply AND processing.
We think today’s news adds a lot of weight to LKY’s "back to front" mine restart strategy…
- ✅ Develop downstream processing tech and produce a refined end product (Today)
- 🔄 Get funding support for a restart (US$191 EXIM LOI received, further funding applied)
- 🔄 Then do the drilling to prove scale. (drilling recently started)
Most mining companies do everything in reverse - drill first, then figure out processing years later.
But LKY already has a previously producing mine AND is drilling it right now - so the approach is to demonstrate the full mine-to-market capability while the drill bit is still turning.
Oh, and LKY has already started design works on what a small scale plant would look like when its up and running - check out this video for that plan:
Watch: LKY Desert Antimony Mine Restart Plan
Why we think today’s news is a big milestone - especially considering the current macro environment
Just last week, the Pentagon invested US$27M into US Antimony Corp (USAC) under the Defence Production Act Title III - specifically to produce antimony for flame retardants, batteries, munitions, and other defence applications.
(source)
That's on top of the US$248M sole-source Pentagon contract awarded to USAC back in September 2025 to supply antimony products for the US strategic stockpile. (source)
The Pentagon also just put out a fresh Request for Project Proposals through the Defence Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC) - asking companies to submit proposals for domestic critical minerals processing, with funding up to US$500M. The deadline is March 20.
(source)
That particular request was for 13 specific minerals - but the broader signal is clear - the US government is actively deploying hundreds of millions of dollars to secure domestic critical mineral supply chains.
And antimony is right at the top of that list.
The kicker for LKY is that LKY currently has an application in for US funding under the US Defense Production Act Title III:
(source)
The second point of interest for us is that, LKY after today’s announcement could have put itself in a position where USAC could be starting to get interested in what LKY is up to.
USAC have been the ones to receive most of the US funding support - but they haven’t really found any feedstock (especially inside US borders) to feed their refineries…
LKY’s project being in California, could help solve that problem.
Especially now that LKY has proven it can produce the exact refined product the Pentagon needs, from ore sourced entirely within the US, sourced entirely from within its own project.
We covered all of this in our previous note here: LKY just started drilling for this critical military metal... in the USA.
So where does this leave LKY?
Stepping back - here is everything LKY has done over the last ~6 months:
(when we put it in list format, what LKY is building towards starts to make a lot more sense)
- LKY Produced the first 100% US-sourced and refined antimony ingot in decades (October 2025)
- Has a US$191M Letter of Interest from US EXIM Bank for project financing (November 2025)
- Applied for US$43M in grant funding under the Defence Production Act Title III (December 2025)
- Currently drilling at the Desert Antimony Mine - testing for extensions to the old workings (February 2026)
- Has grab samples returning high-grade antimony (up to 16.9% Sb) confirming a north-south trend through the mine (March 2026)
- LKY produced 99.5% purity antimony trioxide - meeting the key threshold for defence qualification (Today - March 2026)
All of this while the US government is pouring money into domestic antimony at what has been described as "pandemic-level urgency."
The product qualification work starts now - getting this antimony trioxide in front of metals traders, defence supply chain participants, and government agencies.
IF that goes well, it could open the door to offtake discussions and potentially more government funding… which is exactly what LKY's "back to front" strategy was designed to do.
What’s next for LKY?
Drilling at DAM for antimony 🔄
LKY has recently started drilling at the Desert Antimony Mine (DAM). (source)
LKY will be targeting to confirm extensions to the known antimony mineralisation to the north and south plus test for any east/west shear zones.
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)
Drilling at rare earths at El Campo target 🔄
Following the drilling for antimony LKY will move to its rare earths targets (that sit within MP Material’s ground package).
There, LKY will be testing areas where previous rock chip sampling returned grades as high as ~6.87% TREO (rare earths) - here is where those targets sit.
(source)
Updates on LKY’s processing tech partnerships 🔄
Now 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 US Defense Production Act Title III application pending. (source)
With the Pentagon actively deploying capital into antimony projects right now, we think LKY could be in conversation the next time expressions of interest go out.
