Locksley Resources (ASX: LKY) exploration manager David Ward joins Small Caps to discuss the company's exploration activities at its prospective Mojave rare earth element project In California. The company has recently mobilised its exploration team to follow-up highly anomalous total rare earth oxide results previously identified at Mojave.

The video states:

Locksley Resources (ASX: LKY) has recently mobilised its exploration team to follow up highly anomalous total rare earth oxide results previously identified at Mojave. A field program conducted in August identified multiple rare earth element targets within the North Block of the Mojave project, while a recent stream sediment sampling program at the North Block returned highly anomalous total rare-earth oxide results. Locksley is also following up with sampling at 6 catchment areas it identified in the North Block as prospective for ongoing rare earth element exploration. 

"Having a local source where the US or the Western world can source rare earth from our own supply is going to be increasingly important as time goes on."

-- David Ward, Exploration Manager, Locksley Resources. 

The video further states;

Notably, the North Block abuts the giant Mountain Pass project, the largest rare earth element mine in the US and the largest producer of high-grade rare-earth materials in the western hemisphere. Mountain Pass is currently delivering approximately 15% of the global rare earth supply.

The Full text:

Jess Holland: Hi, welcome back to Small Caps. My name is Jess. And today we are speaking with the Exploration Manager of Locksley Resources Limited, Mr. David Ward. The ticket code of the company is LKY.  Hi, David, It's wonderful to have you on the show. 

David Ward: No worries, Jess. Thanks for having me.  

Jess Holland: Now, David, before we get started, I thought, for those of us, for our small caps audience who aren't familiar with Locksley resources, could you provide our audience with just a brief overview of the company and what the company is actually exploring for, and where the company's projects are located? 

David Ward: Yeah, no worries. So Locksley has been listed for a couple of years now, so a market of about six million bucks. In the bank at the end of September, it was about 3. 5. So we're fairly cheap at the moment, given to some of our expiration projects. So we started with a, which we still have a couple of projects in Lachlan Fold Belt, New South Wales. But then we have acquired, more recently, a rare earth project that we call the Mojave Project in Southern California alongside the Mountain Pass Mine in the United States. 

Jess Holland: Okay, brilliant. I thought we might focus a little bit on the Mojave project because you just had some interesting results, early stage results come out from that late last month. I was wondering, could you provide us with an overview of the company's flagship Mojave project in the US and its significance in the context of the growing demand for rare earth. 

David Ward: Yeah, absolutely. So as some of the audience might already know, the rare earths are critical minerals that are very important in the renewable energy space. The rare earths, in a world sense, come from a couple of key large mines, one of which is in the United States, in Southern California, alongside our existing Mojave projects, it's called the Mountain Pass Mine. 

The Mountain Pass Mine produces approximately 15 per cent of the world's rare earth and is one of the highest grade rare earth mines in the world, and the only operating, producing rare earth mine in the United States. So right alongside the existing operation, which is producing significant quantities of rare earths, in a commodity that is in high demand and increasing demand worldwide. 

Jess Holland: Yeah, so interesting. Thanks, David. Now, I know you mentioned the Mountain Pass mine, but my next question centers around kind of the location and the significance of the location of the project, and and how that's particularly advantageous for rare earths exploration and development. So in that area that you were just talking about. 

David Ward: Yeah, sure. As a rule, the best place to go looking for another deposit is, as people say often, in the shadow of the head frame. So in this case, we have titles or claims within 1. 5 kilometers of the existing mountain pass mine. So the mountain pass mine itself is a *inauditable* intrusion. 

So these intrusions, as a rule, do not occur in isolation, so they're part of a larger body deeper down. Which, or what we have found today is that, we've got some high grade, narrow, structurally controlled rare earth that were found on the existing property, which are all going to be tied in with that larger, larger intrusive system that drives the mountain past mines itself. 

So being in close to the known deposits is really important to make sure that we find where the next one come from. 

Jess Holland: Now, David, decarbonization has been, you know, sort of a big topic of conversation or a hot topic of conversation globally. What factors do you think have contributed to the increase in global focus on rare earths? And why are they, you know, considered critical for the transition to a low carbon economy? 

David Ward: Yeah, sure. So the rare earths themselves are extraordinarily important. They are very critical minerals in the low carbon economy. Two of the main elements are neodymium and praseodymium, which are two of the rare earths that we're looking for.  These rare earths are used as high strength magnets, right? Magnets are used in electric motors, right? Electric motors that drive EVs that are used in wind turbines, in order to generate electricity from renewable energy sources. So this is the key driver for the demand in these rare earths.

Jess Holland: So you mentioned two rare earths elements now that you're looking for and exploring for the moment at your Mojave project. How would a potential discovery and development of rare earths at the Mojave project sort of align with the growing global demand for these elements, these two particular elements, in the renewable energy sector? 

David Ward: Yeah, sure. Any discovery of rare earths, anywhere in the world, especially in a solid jurisdiction with a known and well understood mining practices, is going to be significant on the world stage. So a lot of rare earths are actually produced in China. And during, everyone knows that during the COVID years we had increasing supply constraints in getting materials and goods from overseas.

So having a local source that the United States, the Western world can source  rare earths from our own supply is going to be increasingly important as time goes on.  

Jess Holland: Yeah, I couldn't agree more, David. And, you know, you mentioned China, and we know that China has quite a substantial grip on rare earths supply globally.

You know, they account for 63 percent of the world's rare earths mining, 85 percent of rare earths processing and 90 percent of rare earths magnet production. So they really do have quite a substantial grip on the supply. 

Now, we also know that China recently put, you know, placed export restrictions on graphite. I think that was sort of announced sometime last month. Do you think that there's a possibility that other metals and minerals like rare earths could be the next?

David Ward: Yeah, absolutely guaranteed. This is the key critical risk that we have in the supply of these critical minerals for use, you know, in elsewhere.

So if we don't have our own supply, then we're always at risk of being caught with our pants down. 

Jess Holland: Yep. And I guess, you know, in light of this, you know, what are the strategic benefits in your view for, you know, Australia and the United States developing their own rare earths capabilities? And how does Locksley Resources play a role in this?

You know, you mentioned you have projects in Australia and in the US, so you're exploring for copper and rare earths. Both of these arguably are critical minerals required for decarbonisation. So yeah, just want to understand your thoughts of how, with Australia and the United States, developing their own domestic rare earths capabilities. How important is that? 

David Ward: Yeah, so it's very important for us to have our own industries supplying these critical minerals. As you can see, this has happened in other areas as well. Like this is when there's an increased demand for a particular commodity, lithium, for instance, we, as a community, as a mining community, this is what we do well, right? We can, when there's an increased demand and there's a need, there’s what has become a desperate need for certain materials, this is where we can really step up from it. So where that has happened for lithium in Australia, so lithium has now become, Australia's the biggest exporter of lithium, and that has happened in quite a relatively short timeframe. 

I suspect that we can do the same both in Australia and the U. S. if you're given a bit of rope and the demand stays high, we will fill the void. This is what we do. 

Jess Holland: Yeah. And now pivoting more specific on the Mojave project and the early stage exploration results that you have started to unveil over there.

So now you had recent assay results from the project, which indicated a 12 percent total rare earth oxide content. Could you, for our small caps audience, just elaborate on the significance of that result and its implications for the project's potential, as a whole?

David Ward: Yeah, absolutely. So this was our first sampling mapping program that we came in on our El Campo project.

So what we found was that we'd actually mapped out a significant strike extent of a prospective horizon. So where we were actually doing due diligence was we picked up some rock samples that were not far off 10%, uh, total rare earths.  And then during the follow-up mapping program, we defined some significant strikes of these rare earths.

So in an old prospecting pit, there was an outcropping mineralized structure running 12.1% total rare earth. So this is, so what is actually significant about, is also that it was significant very high neodymium and praseodymium. So the NDPR contents were above 3% for that sample.

So they're extremely high-value materials, right? So this horizon is a narrow, high-grade deposit with extremely high-value material within that. 

Jess Holland: Okay. And now, so David, what's next with the project? You've done some early-stage sort of exploration. What's next? What can we sort of expect in the next six months? 

David Ward: Yeah, we got in pretty early and put in applications to drill that 12 per cent. So we have accesses arranged, that was I was waiting for approvals to come through for drilling of that. So what we also did along with that mapping project is we did some stream sediment sampling on our, what we call our north block project, which is on the north side of the Mountain Pass mine.

So this area is much larger and underexplored. We'd actually gotten some very significant stream sediment samples. So we're just taking dry samples from the bottom of these creek beds. And some of those samples are running up to 0.26 percent total rare earths or 2, 600 parts per million rare earths in these sediments that are shedding off the hills. So what we found was there's a number of these highly anomalous rare earth catchment areas that we're in the process of following up some of those areas at the moment.

It was a very exciting area that we could focus on that, you know, we have the potential to find more of the El Campo style, high-grade rare earth in a larger block north as well.  

Jess Holland: Yes, David, have you been out of sight? Just a random question. 

David Ward: Absolutely. I was there for the sampling. Look at some of the presentations, you'll see photos of us taking samples from the El Campo site. So I took those photos myself. It's a beautiful part of the world. And the accessibility is fantastic. The highway between Las Vegas and L. A. runs right in between the El Campo and North Block. It's like a six-lane highway right there. So there's accessibility, it is really good. There's a bit of topography, which helps when we're looking for rocks as well. There's plenty sticking out of the ground.  

Jess Holland: That's fantastic. Well, David, thank you so much. I have just one final question for you, which is, can you give out or leave our audience with two or three key highlights or takeaways, as to why Locksley Resources should be a stock on their watch list? 

David Ward: So Locksley has some cracking rare earth projects in this Mojave project, there is some very high-grade anomalous, very high-grade outcropping material at the El Campo prospect. We're following up some very high-grade stream sediment samples, extremely anomalous, um, zones in there that we're following up as we speak.

So these areas, we'll be reporting on as soon as we get the results back from the lab. So we have a crew on site now, following up those areas; We will have, um, we will have some news, hopefully about our drilling applications. We can get in and also test the 12 per cent total rare earths. 

And on top of all that, we have a copper-gold resource and our Tottenham project in New South Wales.  So there's a significant amount of copper in that system, there's nearly 10 million tons at 0. 72 per cent copper and some gold.  So copper is becoming an increasingly important material in the low-carbon space as well. As we need copper to drive that industry on top of the rare earths.  

Jess Holland: Yeah. Fingers crossed, David. And also, you know, not to mention from a macro perspective, uh, you know, really critical for the US and Australia to secure a supply of rare earths, um, particularly as they contribute to the, you know, decarbonization and as part of their sort of listing as a critical mineral as well.

So thank you so much David for your insights. I really appreciate you talking with us and our Small Caps audience today, and we really look forward to having you back on the show to chat with us again soon.  

David Ward: No worries. Jess. Thanks for having me again.

Watch the full video here.

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