en.Wedoany.com Reported - Australian-listed mineral exploration company Locksley Resources Ltd (ASX: LKY) announced on April 29, 2026, progress in its research collaboration with Columbia University. The two parties are jointly developing potential process routes for the recovery, separation, and metallization of rare earth elements and associated critical metals from carbonatite and bastnaesite-type mineral systems. This technology will be directly applied to Locksley's El Campo rare earth prospect within the Mojave Project in California, USA, to accelerate the project's development pathway.
Locksley Resources is a company focused on the exploration and development of critical minerals within the United States. Its flagship asset, the Mojave Project, is located in San Bernardino County, California, adjacent to North America's only producing rare earth mine—MP Materials' Mountain Pass rare earth mine, just 1.4 kilometers away. Drilling at the project's primary target, the El Campo rare earth prospect, commenced in late 2025, and has preliminarily confirmed high-grade rare earth mineralization, which remains open along strike and at depth, indicating significant resource expansion potential.
This research collaboration is led by Professor Greeshma Gadikota from Columbia University's Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering and the Columbia Climate School. The project focuses on developing rare earth extraction processes applicable to carbonatite and bastnaesite-type mineral systems. A conceptual process flow diagram has been proposed for El Campo's fluorine-rich bastnaesite ore, covering various leaching methods, co-recovery of other metals, rare earth separation, and electrometallurgy. Ongoing evaluations aim to simplify process complexity and improve recovery rates of rare earths and related metals. Locksley is also advancing a collaboration with Rice University to develop DeepSolv™, a next-generation antimony processing technology. This technology is an improvement on mature solvent metallurgical process methods, with strong adaptability to raw material sources, and is expected to open up the global antimony market valued at $3.25 billion (approximately 23.6 billion RMB) for Locksley.
Locksley's Managing Director and CEO, Kerrie Matthews, stated that the collaboration with Columbia University provides the company with advanced rare earth process research and development support, aiding in a better understanding of potential processing routes for carbonatite-related mineral systems. She also noted that the next phase will involve process optimization using Locksley's ore samples, advancing in tandem with El Campo exploration. This research collaboration is in its early development stage and is expected to provide a simplified and more economically viable alternative for the project's future beneficiation and metallurgical processes, while synergizing with Rice University's antimony extraction process as it progresses.
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