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Andrew Todd
Locksley Resources has fired up the drill rig to chase rare earths at its Mojave Project in California, launching the first-ever drilling campaign at its El Campo rare earths prospect.
The move marks the first systematic subsurface test of the prospect, which sits just 6.5km southeast of MP Materialsโ world-class Mountain Pass mine โ the only operating rare earths facility in the United States.
The company says its program, consisting of four diamond holes, will drill into the ground to test the depth and lateral continuity of surface mineralisation over a 900-metre strike length.
The drill bit will be aimed at unearthing the source of some eye-catching sample numbers, where previous rock chips returned grades of up to 12.1 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO).
Management says the program will test for sheared carbonatite-hosted rare earths mineralisation, the same geological style that underpins the nearby Mountain Pass deposit. This giant carbonatite system has been mined for more than 70 years.
โThis program will deliver the first subsurface data to assess continuity and inform the projectโs development potential.โ
Locksley Resources technical director Ian Stockton
Once completed, the core samples will be logged for detailed geological analysis and to guide future metallurgical test work, a critical step in understanding the projectโs wider potential.
The drilling program is a key part of Locksleyโs broader strategy to build a domestic US supply of critical minerals. With rare earths designated as vital for national security applications, defence systems and the coming robotics revolution, the American government has prioritised the development of new, secure domestic sources to reduce its reliance on foreign supply chains.
A discovery at El Campo could place Locksley at the forefront of that national push, leveraging its strategic position next to the government-funded Mountain Pass, within a well-established mineral province.
At the same time, the company says it is currently awaiting assay results from a recently completed drilling program at its Desert Antimony mine within the same Mojave project tenure, adding another feather to the companyโs critical minerals cap.
Locksley Resources technical director Ian Stockton said: โCommencing drilling at El Campo marks an important step in advancing the broader rare earth potential of the Mojave Project. The grade of surface mineralisation identified to date provides a strong foundation, and this program will deliver the first subsurface data to assess continuity and inform the projectโs development potential.โ
The back-to-back drilling programs at two distinct critical mineral prospects appear to be a calculated move by the company to generate a steady stream of results while conserving costs with a single rig.
The current campaign at El Campo is expected to take about three weeks, with initial assays to be delivered once samples are submitted for analysis.
The results will be used to create a 3D geological model of the mineralisation and will be instrumental in planning follow-up exploration.
At Locksleyโs Desert antimony prospect, high-grade antimony veins have already been substantially outlined, with recent surface assays grading up to 46 per cent antimony.
The company has also recently produced a highly stable battery-grade antimony-graphite material through its partnership with Rice University in Texas.
Using a novel Deep Eutectic Solvent process, the partners successfully extract antimony without the complexity of traditional flotation. This is seen as a key step for Locksley, as it moves towards defence-grade 99 per cent-pure antimony under its US mine-to-market strategy.
With the drill rods now turning in the shadow of Americaโs most prominent rare earths operation, Locksley is taking the pivotal step from surface prospecting to subsurface discovery.
For a company with ambitions to supply two different critical minerals to the US domestic market, this maiden drill program could prove to be a company-maker in the booming critical minerals market.
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