57% antimony price fall forces Locksley to halt Mojave fieldwork

Antimony price fall forces Mojave strategy reset

Locksley Resources Limited (ASX:LKY) has put its US critical minerals strategy into suspended animation, ceasing active field exploration across the Mojave Project after antimony prices fell more than 57% from mid-2025 peaks to August 2026. The decision came after the 30 June financial year-end, but it now defines the investment case attached to the company’s FY26 annual report.

The company will maintain its 491 Mojave lode claims, covering more than 40 square kilometres, on a low-cost basis while retaining the option to revisit the project if market conditions improve. It is also reviewing whether further work will continue under its DeepSolv research collaboration with Rice University. The accounts recognise a A$1.94 million impairment against Mojave exploration and evaluation assets, leaving A$4.72 million of exploration assets on the balance sheet.

Drilling delivered results before the spending freeze

The retreat follows a year of substantial technical activity. Eight diamond holes totalling 1,065 metres at the Desert Antimony Mine intersected narrow, high-grade mineralisation, including 4.0 metres at 4.87% antimony with a 0.4-metre interval at 33.51%. Four holes at the El Campo rare earths prospect also returned mineralisation, including 7.20 metres at 2.93% total rare earth oxides, with NdPr oxides representing about 25% of TREO in the key intercept.

Those results remain exploration-stage data rather than a mine development case. Locksley’s Desert Antimony Mine Exploration Target of 772,000 to 1.382 million tonnes at 2.5% to 4.9% antimony is explicitly conceptual and is not a Mineral Resource. The company has reported no Mineral Resources for Mojave, while its downstream work, including a 68.1% antimony concentrate and 99.5% purity antimony trioxide, remains based on flotation, bench-scale or laboratory testing.

The project did attract strategic signals during the year. The US Export-Import Bank issued a non-binding Letter of Interest for up to US$191 million of potential project financing, and Locksley joined the US Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Innovation Hub. Neither development represents committed project funding, a distinction that matters more now that field activity has stopped.

Loss widens as capital funds exploration and corporate costs

Locksley recorded a net loss of A$15.65 million, compared with A$1.58 million in FY25, while operating cash outflow increased to A$7.89 million from A$1.41 million. Exploration and evaluation expenses reached A$6.37 million, and the company booked A$2.86 million in share-based payments alongside the Mojave impairment.

Two placements raised about A$22.4 million before costs, including a A$17 million placement at A$0.24 led by US institutional investors. At 30 June, Locksley held A$8.94 million in cash and a further A$6 million in term deposits, with no borrowings and total liabilities of A$581,423. That balance gives the company room to moderate spending, but the report also states that continued exploration and development will depend on future equity or debt funding.

Iron Duke becomes the new exploration test

The company’s stated FY27 focus is now the Tottenham and Iron Duke copper-gold projects in New South Wales. Locksley has an option to acquire 100% of Iron Duke, within 18 kilometres of Tottenham, for an initial option fee of A$100,000 and an initial exercise consideration of A$500,000 in cash and/or shares. The option carries a minimum 2,000-metre drilling commitment during its nine-month term.

Iron Duke has a historical estimate of 1.3 million tonnes at 1.0% copper and 0.6 grams per tonne gold, but it was prepared under the older JORC 2004 code and has not been reported as a JORC 2012 Mineral Resource. The coming work therefore has a clear burden: establish whether the project can replace some of the strategic weight previously placed on Mojave, without treating a historical estimate as a current resource.