Locksley Resources forms US alliances to establish domestic antimony supply chain

Locksley Resources (ASX: LKY) announced Tuesday it has engaged Washington, DC-based advisory group GreenMet to support the advancement of its antimony and rare earth elements Mojave project in Inyo County, California.

Under the terms, GreenMet will position the Mojave project within key US government initiatives under the Defense Production Act, Inflation Reduction Act and Department of Energy programs. The firm is led by Drew Horn, a former US official on strategic minerals and energy supply chain development.

The Mojave project is located next to MP Materials’ Mountain Pass mine, the only active rare earths mine in the US. It includes the Desert antimony prospect, with historic high-grade samples up to 46% antimony, and the El Campo rare earth prospect, where recent rock chip assays returned up to 12.1% total rare earth oxides.

The location, says Locksley, offers a “strategic opportunity” to secure antimony and rare earth supplies within the US.

The Australian critical minerals explorer aims to establish the first domestic mine-to-market antimony supply chain, addressing a critical gap where currently 90-95% of refined supply comes from countries outside the US alliance network.

Antimony is vital for military applications and ammunition, batteries and semiconductors. There is currently no domestic antimony source, and 90% of world supply is controlled by China and Russia, an untenable narrative when it comes to sourcing minerals crucial to North America’s supply chain.

Locksley said it has obtained Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approvals for expanded drilling programs at both Desert and El Campo, scheduled to start in September. This week, it secured $6 million cash from a heavily oversubscribed placement to fund its near-term exploration efforts at Mojave.

The company also said it struck an alliance with Houston-based Rice University to pioneer domestic antimony processing and advanced materials research in the US – a move that it believes could position its project at the heart of America’s push to rebuild its antimony supply chain from scratch.