Kristie Batten: Locksley locks in market support for Mojave

May was a transformational month for Locksley Resources, thanks to its Mojave rare earth and antimony project in California.

Kristie Batten. Pic: Supplied/Stockhead

One of Australia’s top mining journalists, Kristie Batten writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene.

May was a transformational month for Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY) , thanks to its Mojave rare earth and antimony project in California.

Locksley has held the Mojave project for several years but due to a lack of interest in rare earths and lengthy wait times for drill permitting, the company has more recently been focused on the Tottenham copper project in New South Wales.

However, Donald Trump’s return to the White House changed things for the company with momentum accelerating in the past few weeks.

Geologist Allister Caird joined the company three weeks ago as head of critical minerals.

Caird told Stockhead Trump’s March 20 executive order, aimed at increasing US minerals production, had been a game-changer for the company.

“What we were thinking, where it was initially going to take two years to get a drilling permit, has now been turned around in a matter of weeks,” he said.

“We're awaiting a drilling permit from the Bureau of Land Management, basically at any moment now.

“We've had this project that's got some pretty compelling grades, but not everything has fallen into place until right now, and it's all happened very quickly, so it’s a pretty exciting time for the company.”

Mojave momentum

The Mojave project is just 1.4km from MP Materials’ Mountain Pass mine, the only producing rare earth mine in the US.

The project’s North Block hosts the historical Desert antimony mine, which was only in production for about three years almost a century ago.

Surface sampling has returned grades of up to 46% antimony and 1022 grams per tonne silver.

Eight surface samples returned over 17% antimony and a further 18 graded over 1.4% antimony.

Surface mineralisation has been traced over 400m to date.

“There aren't a heap of drill holes on our claim, so even though we know we've got commercial grades, I guess we don't fully understand the size of the resource, so there is a bit of runway to figure that out,” Caird said.

At the El Campo prospect to the south, which is surrounded by, and directly along strike from Mountain Pass, five initial rock chip samples have returned total rare earth oxide results of 3.74-9.49%, including up to 3.19% neodymium-praseodymium, over a 6m mineralised zone.

Follow-up work returned 12 rock chip samples grading 1.03-12.1% TREO.

Drill baby drill

Locksley’s field team is planning to mobilise to site this month ahead of reverse circulation drilling, planned for the September quarter.

The company is planning to drill six holes at El Campo and three holes at Desert, around the historical mine.

“Whilst the program is quite focused and targeted at the moment, we can really expand it out to other parts of the claim that haven't been explored yet,” Caird said.

Caird said the company had been encouraged by Trump’s “drill baby drill” comment and was hopeful the US would maintain the positive permitting momentum.

“We've already got the second phase of drill holes planned, so it's not like we're going to be caught flat-footed,” he said.

“We will already be putting in these permits for the second phase of drilling immediately, so there shouldn't be any large delays there, and especially given we've already got some environmental impact assessment permits granted, so I don't think there's a whole heap of risk there from a permitting standpoint.”

Investors catching on

Locksley is fully funded for the upcoming exploration program after raising $1.47 million at 4c per share last week.

The stock closed at 8c on Friday, double the raising price and taking May gains to 300%.

Even still, the company is only capped at $11.7 million.

“I think even though we have had quite a share price run and some good support with the capital raise there, I still think we're probably a little bit undervalued,” Caird said.

Locksley’s Mojave is only 7.7km from Dateline Resources’ Colosseum project, which Trump described on social media as “America’s second rare earths mine”.

Dateline shares surged by 870% in May, giving the company a market cap of more than $270 million.

Another US antimony hopeful, Trigg Minerals, also had a productive month in May and is now worth $73.6 million.

“We're all chasing a similar resource, but comparatively, I think we're still quite good value compared to those other companies at this stage,” Caird said.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Locksley Resources is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.

Originally published as Kristie Batten: Locksley locks in market support for Mojave