New generation ‘gold’ rush attracting ASX juniors to the US West Coast

• The US West Coast is rich in gold and much-sought-after critical minerals
• This is capturing attention amid a push to boost domestic production
• Australian juniors are capitalising on this opportunity

The US West Coast has seen more than its fair share of gold rushes in the past and is increasingly being recognised for its critical minerals prospectivity.

Notable examples include NP Materials’ Mountain Pass, the only producing rare earths mine in the US, in California – one of the five leading mining states in America.

Eastern Oregon also has significant historical gold production and shares many geological features with northern Nevada, where major deposits such as the Battle Mountain-Phoenix intrusion related gold-silver-copper deposits are located.

Despite this, it has seen very little exploration and mining activity for almost a century.

Being able to source domestic sources of critical minerals is certainly a priority for the US government as export curbs placed by China, which dominates production of these commodities that are so badly needed for high-tech applications, have prompted a push to develop new mines within the country.

Nowhere is this clearer than the flurry of executive orders that have left US President Donald Trump’s desk that are aimed at boosting critical minerals production and securing supply chains.

This interest and prospectivity has also drawn Australian juniors keen to make their fortunes.

Locksley Resources’ non-executive chairman Nathan Lude told Stockhead the company was drawn to the US West Coast by a rare combination of significant geological potential, strategic location of its Mojave project next to Mountain Pass and national relevance for critical minerals.

“The Mojave region of California hosts a well known rare earth corridor, including the only currently producing REE mine in the US, Mountain Pass,” he noted.

“Our project sits within this highly prospective zone and offers exposure to critical minerals such as neodymium and antimony both essential for the energy transition and defence supply chains.

“Equally important, California offers a unique convergence of federal policy support, infrastructure, and downstream industry presence.

“The proximity to existing processing hubs, logistics networks, and end users from EV manufacturers to defence contractors makes this region an ideal base for our strategy.”

Here are some ASX-listed companies with operations in the region.

Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY)

The Mojave project in southeastern California is just 1.4km from MP Materials’ Mountain Pass mine and stands out for its unique combination of both antimony and rare earth element potential.

“While Mountain Pass produces rare earths, there is currently no active antimony production in the United States, despite rising demand and prices.” Lude said.

“The Mojave project has delivered exceptional high grade surface samples across both commodities, with results of up to 12.1% total rare earth oxides and 46% antimony.

“This positions Mojave as a strategically located and technically compelling critical minerals projects in the US.”

Mojave also hosts the historically producing Desert antimony mine, which operated briefly between 1926-27 and again in 1939, when both technology and antimony demand were limited.

“Today the region benefits from established transport infrastructure, giving it a distinct edge over remote or geopolitically sensitive deposits elsewhere,” Lude added.

“Combined with strong federal support for critical minerals, Mojave stands out as a very attractive exploration and development opportunity.”

Over the coming months, Locksley will focus on advancing the project from being drill-ready to a federally supported, development project with downstream support.

Key steps to achieving this objective include finalising permitting and access agreements with the Bureau of Land Management for the Desert mine, conducting detailed geological mapping, geophysics, and geochemical sampling, as well as listing on the OTCQB exchange.

The company will also appoint a contractor to conduct a maiden drill program to establish mineralisation and scale across both commodities, strengthen its US strategic partnership, and continue engagement with government, community, and potential offtake partners.

Codrus Minerals (ASX:CDR)

The Bull Run project in Oregon is located between the +500,000oz historical high-grade producer Cracker Creek and the 1Moz gold, 3Moz silver Grassy Mountain deposit.

Earlier this month a diamond drill rig operated by contractor Integri-Core was mobilised to the site, where the company had prioritised five targets across 2km of strike extent.

They include the Eldorado Zone, which living up to its name, has delivered high gold and copper rock chips of up to 28g/t Au and 1.5% Cu.

Grades of up to 60g/t gold and 2.5% molybdenum, suggesting a potential polymetallic system, have also been found at Lady May.

“We have several priority geochemical targets and down dip extensions of historical gold workings to drill for high grade gold mineralisation, and beyond that some very strong and compelling blind IP targets that are prospective for copper as well as gold,” exploration manager Stuart Owen said.

“We have enough drill ready targets to keep us busy for 2025 and beyond, but will also be working on progressing some compelling geophysical targets within the broader Bull Run project to drill ready status.”

Historical drill results have demonstrated the potential for high-grade discoveries at shallow depths, with hole DDH34-82-1 striking 20.5m at 3.53g/t Au from just 7.9m including a 6.9m stretch at 9.31g/t.

This comes a month after the company received a permit for 14,000m of drilling across the Bull Run site.

Eldorado and Sunrise are the southernmost prospects, alongside Lady May and Whited, and to the far north of a 2km strike zone Payton.

Across the targets, Codrus’ early stage exploration has picked up gold in soil anomalism up to 0.5g/t, with peak values exceeding 1g/t Au, locally extreme soil values up to 27g/t Au and rock chip samples returning values up to 1040g/t Au.

Also, a recent 3D IP Resistivity survey delineated chargeability anomalies up to 400 by 400 metres in extent. These anomalies coincide with high-priority geochemical targets, further strengthening their prospectivity.

Previous drilling conducted more than 40 years ago has never been properly followed up on, despite hitting economic gold grades down to just 60m down hole from surface.

It presents a massive opportunity for Codrus Minerals at the Baker County ground, where it holds 91 claims with an option over the 11 claims covering the Record mine.

Dateline Resources (ASX:DTR)

Colosseum rare earths project in California received a shoutout in June 2025 from Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum who said restarting the mine was a pivotal step towards bolstering America’s supply of critical minerals and reducing US reliance on overseas sources for REEs.

While Colosseum is still a ways from being reopened nor does it have a rare earths resource as yet, it does have a gold resource of about 1.1Moz that is currently the subject of a bankable feasibility study for a 2Mtpa project capable of producing ~75,000oz of gold per annum for 8.5 years.

The project is believed to host the same mineralising system as that Mountain Pass.

Dateline has also started a geochemical sampling program across the broader project area to generate detailed geochemical maps and prioritise areas with the greatest gold or REE mineral potential for drilling.

A magnetotelluric survey is also on track to start shortly in parallel with the latter stages of the soil program. This will collect deep subsurface data along multiple lines across the claims to image geological structures and alteration zones within the Colosseum claim boundary.

A maiden REE-focused drill program is currently being finalised with scheduling to be informed by these new datasets.

Haranga Resources (ASX:HAR)

Haranga recently struck, well not quite the mother lode, but certainly acquired a project in California’s Mother Lode belt that is known for its rich gold deposits that were the subject of the gold rush of 1849.

The company’s Lincoln gold mine, which it says is production-ready, has reportedly produced some 3.4Moz from the leases it covers between 1851 and 1952 though a number of blind discoveries were made in the early 1980s with ~35,000m of drilling conducted between 1983 and 2013.

Present resources in ground are somewhat more modest at ~286,000oz at a high-grade of 9.3g/t according to the non-JORC NI 43-101 numbers.

Lincoln already has major approvals secured, $90m in sunk capital and extensive existing process and underground infrastructure in place, so Haranga’s claim probably isn’t too far off reality.

Jindalee Lithium (ASX:JLL)

The McDermitt project sits at the northern end of the McDermitt Caldera – 35km from Thacker Pass in Nevada, the most advanced lithium project that is currently under development with backing from General Motors and a low-interest loan from the US Department of Energy, and is amendable to bulk mining methods.

The pre-feasibility study released in November 2024 outlined a project capable of producing lithium carbonate for 63 years.

It demonstrates a highly profitable, low-opex of $8080/t LCE, multi-decade project with a 5-year capital payback on Capex of $3.02bn.

Post-tax NPV and IRR are $3.23bn and 17.9% respectively.

McDermitt currently has an ore reserve of 2.34Mt LCE which makes up a little over 10% of the overall indicated and inferred resource of 21.5Mt LCE.

Jindalee also holds the Clayton North project in Nevada that is 23km north of Silver Peak, the only producing lithium operation in the US.

Clayton North features extensive areas of lithium bearing claystones outcrop while initial drilling has returned intercepts of 6.1m at 1093ppm lithium and 11.2m at 1006ppm lithium from shallow depths.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Locksley Resources and Codrus Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.