Locksley cracks 99.5% purity antimony milestone from US mine
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Andrew Todd
Locksley Resources has successfully produced 99.5 percent pure antimony trioxide from feedstock from the Desert Antimony mine, part of the larger Mojave project in California.
The company said the industrial-grade metal was obtained through ongoing metallurgical optimization programs, marking a major step forward in its broader strategy to create a secure, American-made supply chain for the critical mineral.
Locksley says this certification of a high-spec product opens the door to a complete mine-to-market production line on U.S. soil; This capability is largely absent as global supply becomes increasingly concentrated in foreign hands.
Although the high-purity product was created at laboratory scale, management says the result confirms that existing U.S.-based refining pathways can be implemented in Mojave, directly aligning with the American government’s priorities to revitalize domestic processing.
‘The 99.5% pure antimony confirms the potential to produce high-value, refined, American-made antimony products from our Mojave Project.’
Locksley Resources managing director and CEO Kerrie Matthews
The metallurgy program focuses on improving quality and recovery while shaping processing routes for high-value industrial and defense products.
Locksley Resources managing director and CEO Kerrie Matthews said: “This achievement marks a significant milestone for Locksley. Demonstrating that feedstock from the Desert Antimony Mine can be upgraded to 99.5% pure antimony trioxide confirms the potential to produce high-value, refined, American-made antimony products from our Mojave Project.”
Locksley recently launched the first diamond drilling campaign at the Desert Antimony mine, aiming to expand the depths of known high-grade antimony mineralization beneath historic workings.
Core sampling and analysis will be used to validate a 99.5 percent metallurgical and processing test run for submission to U.S. Department of Energy Critical Minerals programs.
High purity antimony trioxide is an important input for a number of defense technologies, including ammunition primers, military electronics and flame retardant systems.
The company says achieving a purity level of 99.5 percent meets a threshold for entry into these specialized markets and provides a pathway for product qualification for defense and strategic supply chain participants.
Locksley believes the main impediment to domestic supply is not the availability of ore but the lack of US-based processing; This is a gap that its integrated strategy is designed to address.
With its ability to produce high purity antimony now proven, the company is moving beyond exploration and into downstream processing areas.
The company appears to be systematically assembling a fully vertically integrated domestic solution for a material vital to America’s defense and industrial base, at a time when securing all things defense is at the absolute forefront of the global superpower’s focus.
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