Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY) is advancing a range of workstreams to fast-track redevelopment plans and initiate extraction studies at the Desert Antimony Mine (DAM) prospect within the Mojave Project in California.
The ASX-listed emerging antimony developer is undertaking these workstreams in parallel to facilitate the extraction operations including development planning, in which additional information from ongoing technical work will be used in the planning assessment for the extraction of mineralisation.
Locksley is now engaging a mining engineering consultant with specialist expertise in the restart of historical mining operations.
It is also seeking expressions of interest from third-party contractors for the extraction of a specified tonnage of mineralised material. Suitable contractors are being sourced and asked to tender.
Meanwhile, Locksley is submitting the amended plan of operations to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the extraction of mineralisation, incorporating the detailed LiDAR and operational data.
In parallel, it is advancing discussions with the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) and other US funding agencies, leveraging a $191 million letter-of-intent (LoI), to secure the definitive development finance package, as reported.
The company is now also generating product samples from the ongoing metallurgical testwork program to meet the final specifications required for industrial and defence sector offtakers.
Drilling at Desert Antimony Mine
Drilling at the Desert Antimony Mine prospect is seeking to inform a maiden JORC (2012) mineral resource estimate (MRE). The company says multiple technical areas are being enhanced, with institutional support building in America, and numerous development workstreams underway.
As such, Locksley is now positioned to progress from exploration to execution.
The company notes that with its US mine-to-market strategy, it is advancing one of America’s most strategically significant critical mineral projects at a time of record policy and market demand for secure antimony supply.
Recently, the company delivered key technical milestones including a LiDAR underground survey, metallurgical processing updates, a bulk sample, underground workings assessment and maiden exploration target (JORC 2012), as reported by Mining.com.au.
These milestones have provided Locksley with the confidence to fast track the redevelopment plans and initiate extraction studies of mineralisation at the Desert Antimony Mine prospect.
CEO Kerrie Matthews says the restart pathway complements Locksley’s downstream strategy, including its collaboration with Rice University to develop advanced antimony extraction technology using DeepSolvTM.
“The successful execution of these three integrated phases has significantly advanced the company towards mitigating the key uncertainties associated with planning for recommencing operations”
Together with the MoU signed with Hazen Research for US-based processing capability, the CEO notes Locksley is building a fully integrated mine-to-market platform aligned with American industrial, defence, and energy sectors.
The advancement of the Desert Antimony Mine prospect comes at a pivotal time for the US, with antimony confirmed as a priority under federal supply chain resilience frameworks. Locksley’s progress directly supports US objectives to rebuild domestic sources of defence-essential materials.
Matthews says this is a pivotal moment for Locksley, marking the rapid advancement towards the company becoming a developer, with an end-to-end supply chain strategy from mine-to-metal.
All technical steps, from establishing the exploration target, to achieving the 68.1% concentrate grade and to evaluating the underground workings aligns with this strategy.
“The successful execution of these three integrated phases has significantly advanced the company towards mitigating the key uncertainties associated with planning for recommencing operations,” the CEO adds.
“We are focused on further enhancing our understanding of DAM and working in parallel with the US government on permitting, finance, and ultimately physically delivering (our) antimony product into the US market.”
From target validation to extraction
As mentioned, the company has advanced planning for a targeted, integrated work plan designed to fast-track extraction of mineralisation for Locksley’s phase one pilot processing facility, planned for 2026.
These results have collectively provided the company sufficient confidence to progress plans towards re-development of the historical mine.
With enhanced knowledge of the geology, metallurgy, and underground access now in place and continually developing, Locksley has now begun early stage small scale production planning.
Underground LiDAR surveying has mapped 236m of historical workings and spatially defined areas of mined mineralisation which has supported 3D geological modelling.
Combined with surface structural and geological mapping and sampling, this has enabled it to establish an exploration target (JORC 2012) at DAM containing between 19,400 to 67,700 tonnes of antimony metal.
Locksley says this provides a framework to establish a conceptual development plan to provide feed for a pilot plant which is envisaged in 2026.
This initial work provides a basis for the scale of operation which would be required and allows conceptual planning and design to be undertaken.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Locksley
