Resources Top 5: Locksley on the charge after arming itself for Mojave drilling

News.com.au

28-05-2025

Funds raised in a placement will fund upcoming exploration at the Mojave antimony and rare earths project
Placement funds will enable Victory to accelerate a pre-feasibility study and development of North Stanmore
Bauxite miner Metro Mining reached 6.3c, a 6.8% increase on the previous close
Your standout resources stocks for Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY)
On the charge to a daily high of 7.1c, a lift of 45% on the previous close and on volume of more than 119m, was Locksley Resources after raising $1.47m in a strongly supported placement.
There were 36.67 million shares issued at 4c each to sophisticated and institutional investors in the placement, which was heavily oversubscribed.
Funds will be used to fund an upcoming exploration campaign, including drilling, at the Mojave antimony and rare earths project in California.
The exploration team of Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY) is already mobilising to site in order to confirm priority targets and prepare for drilling to start.
The team will confirm and peg drill collar locations and access routes while the company waits for Bureau of Land Management approvals to be granted.
Priority activities also include access routes and the engagement of earthworks and drill contractors to complete the drilling program.
In addition, the exploration team will conduct follow-up mapping and rock chip sampling across high-priority antimony, REE, polymetallic and copper targets.
Further activities will include refining geophysical targets, additional surface sampling for geochemistry and structural mapping, and starting petrological studies to inform future metallurgical testing.
Drilling, which is expected to begin in the September quarter, will focus on the El Campo prospect where six holes will be drilled to test TREO of up to 12.1% and the Desert Antimony Mine with three holes testing high-grade antimony mineralisation of up to 46%.
This comprehensive campaign is designed to progress priority targets and unlock the project's critical minerals potential.
Mojave is immediately adjacent to MP Materials' high-grade Mountain Pass mine and processing facility, which is the only active REE processor in the US and produces ~15% of global REE supply.
It is prospective for valuable magnet REEs such as neodymium and praseodymium, as well as antimony with rock chips having returned grades of up to 17% while sampling also returned high-grade results of between 3.74% and 9.49% total rare earth oxides within a six-metre wide mineralised zone at the El Campo prospect.
'We're extremely pleased with the strong support shown for this raise, which allows us to advance both antimony and REE drilling in one of the most strategic locations in the US,' chairman Nathan Lude said.
'This funding puts us in a strong position to execute our exploration program and deliver key value catalysts in the months ahead.'
REEs and antimony are designated as critical minerals by the US government with the former – particularly magnet REEs – used to manufacture permanent rare earth magnets that are used in electric vehicle motors and wind turbines.
Antimony, which reportedly cracked the US$60,000t mark recently, is used as a flame retardant and in the production of alloys, which are used in batteries, low-friction metals, small arms, tracer bullets, cable sheathing and other industrial products.
Victory Metals (ASX:VTM)
Another company on the move after raising funds was Victory Metals, which climbed 16.3% to a daily high of $1.00.
The $4m raised will enable the company to accelerate a pre-feasibility study and development of its flagship North Stanmore rare earths project near Cue in Western Australia.
Firm commitments have been received for the placement at 73c per share, which was a 15% discount to VTM's last traded price on May 26, 2025.
The placement attracted strong backing from Victory's top 20 shareholders as well as directors and management, reflecting high confidence in the company and its North Stanmore project, Australia's largest clay-hosted heavy rare earth deposit.
More than 5m will be issued to professional and sophisticated investors and around 340,000 shares to directors and management, pending shareholder approval.
The company will also issue 1.8m unlisted options with an exercise price of $1.30 and a two-year exercise period to unrelated parties under the investor participation.
Victory Metals (ASX:VTM) said this funding marked a turning point, positioning it as a global leader in critical minerals.
Recent testwork recovered seven strategic metals, including gallium and other rare earths impacted by Chinese export restrictions, marking a key milestone in establishing a globally significant critical minerals platform.
'This raise will fast track our PFS and marks a pivotal moment for Victory with such strong support,' Victory's CEO and executive director Brendan Clark said.
'North Stanmore is emerging as one of the world's most advanced heavy rare earth clay projects and is already Australia's leading heavy rare earth project.
'Our MREC testwork has successfully recovered seven strategic metals currently under Chinese export restrictions, including gallium and the full suite of critical heavy rare earths.
'We are building a globally significant critical minerals platform and are proud to be leading the charge.'
Settlement of the placement shares and placement options is expected to occur on Thursday, June 5, 2025, with shares to begin normal trading on the ASX on Friday, June 6.
Shareholder approval for the director participation will be sought at a general meeting planned to be held in July 2025.
Metro Mining (ASX:MMI)
(Up on no news)
ASX-listed bauxite producers and explorers have been buoyed by stronger prices and improved market fundamentals in the past few months and among them is Metro Mining, which has reached 6.3c, a 6.8% increase on the previous close, despite having no news.
The primary driver of the changed markets for the key raw material for aluminium production, has been the suspension of exports from Guinea, the second largest producer globally and just behind Australia in production volume.
This has seen increased demand from China for other sources as well as increased prices and the trend is expected to continue throughout the remainder of 2025.
Metro Mining has operations in the bauxite region on the west coast of Queensland's Cape York.
The 100%-owned Bauxite Hills Mine is on the Weipa bauxite plateau about 95 km north of Weipa, near the coast on the Skardon River.
This month the company updated its ore reserve and resource estimates for Bauxite Hills, taking into account depletion from mining during 2024.
The total resource estimate for Bauxite Hills is now 114.4Mt (dry), representing a decrease of 4.3Mt from the December 31, 2023, estimate.
No additional resources were added as no exploration was undertaken during 2024 and there were no additional conversions from indicated to measured categories or inferred to indicated categories.
The total reserve estimate is now 77.7Mt (wet). The decrease was 5.5Mt from that published in May 2024 which accounted for mining to the end of December 2024.
Hawsons Iron (ASX:HIO)
(Up on no news)
Although it also has no news today, Hawsons Iron increased as much as 74% to 4c, a high of more than two years.
Last week, testwork on ore from its namesake project in the far west of NSW supported a plan to use 100% dry processing as it is a cleaner, cheaper alternative to the traditional wet method.
An independent report from Stantec Australia confirms the dry circuit is not only viable but also cuts costs and improves environmental outcomes while also opening the door to potential value-add side products like silica sand.
Stantec's Project Report provides confidence for further investigation into potential secondary products (eg hematite, silica sands) and flow on optimisation of mine design, processing and logistics.
Detailed analytical work completed recently demonstrates a high level of geochemical and physical material consistency, throughout the current resource, particularly within the early phase of operations, which significantly contributes towards de-risking the project during its early years of operation.
The company is collating engineering and cost data with the aim of releasing an updated prefeasibility study together with maiden ore reserves for the Hawsons iron project.
Pivotal Metals (ASX:PVT)
After identifying bonanza-grade gold targets during a review of historical data from the Lorraine prospect in Canada, Pivotal Metals jumped 50% on the previous close to a daily high of 0.9c.
The review included a result of 28m at 45.2 g/t gold and 3.2% copper in an historical underground channel sample.
This and other high-grade results show potential for a significant system at the project in Quebec. Among the other results were:
9.5m at 14.1 g/t Au and 3.2% Cu; and
0.97m at 56.2 g/t Au including 0.15m at 233.9 g/t.
A broad 600m strike prospective corridor has been defined with multiple signature Cu-Au quartz veining.
The gold target is largely unexplored following the conclusion of copper-nickel focused mining in the 1960s and the company has started a gold focused work program, including the definition of drill targets with detailed surface mapping and sampling along with a high resolution UAV magnetic survey to inform structural controls.
The Lorraine targets are a small part of the large and highly prospective Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt (BAGB) project, which is close to the infrastructure-rich Abitibi mining camp.
Pivotal managing director Ivan Fairhall said: 'With a large and robust shallow copper resource and clear exploration pathway in hand at Horden Lake, we are broadening our program to our BAGB projects; where bonanza Cu, Ni and Au grades are guiding us towards the next discovery.
'These gold targets at Lorraine are an exciting addition to our already attractive Cu-Ni projects at BAGB. The bonanza Au grades and their correlation over a significantly broad area provide very strong encouragement for discovery in this area which has largely unexplored for Au, with the historical focus on Cu-Ni previously mined.
'We are planning an aggressive summer field program to establish the continuity of the broad Au-Cu-quartz vein system adjacent to the Lorraine mine to develop drill targets for immediate follow up.'
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent financial advice before making any financial decisions. While Locksley Resources and Victory Metals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.