Barkly Rare Earths (ASX: BAK) made a strong ASX debut today, jumping almost 50% to 29.5c in early trade after raising $8 million to fund work at its Barkly rare earths project in the Northern Territory. The company is up 30% a half hour before the close of its first trading session, sitting at 26 cents per share.
The IPO was priced at 20c a share late last year and was comfortably oversubscribed amid renewed focus on securing Western rare earth supply chains, with China again signalling potential export restrictions.
The company, which rang the bell at 1pm, is trading under codes BAK and BAKO, following a fully underwritten IPO led by Leeuwin Wealth, with Leeuwin Wealth and Cumulus Wealth acting as joint lead managers.
BAK has earmarked the bulk of proceeds for near-term drilling and metallurgical work at its 100%-owned Barkly Rare Earths Project in the Northern Territory.
To assist its exploration aims, Barkly has appointed rare earth metallurgist Gavin Beer to its board, pointing to his 35+ years’ experience across critical minerals projects and prior roles including Rio Tinto and Arafura Rare Earths.
“It is an incredibly exciting day with the listing of Barkly Rare Earths. Since I founded the company in 2020 with Rene Sterk and Richard Hall, and made the discovery at Barkly in 2022, we have been laser-focused on creating an Australian rare earths company of global consequence. The funds from the listing will allow us to aggressively pursue an expansion of the Inferred Mineral Resource within the very large drilling target," BAK managing director Craig Wright said.
"The appointment of globally renowned metallurgist Gavin Beer to the Board of Directors allows the team to drive towards developing processing solutions at Barkly to complement our growing resource. Gavin Lockyer’s experience operating in the Northern Territory as the former Managing Director of Arafura Rare Earths will be invaluable to our endeavours. I look forward in earnest to the drill rig starting to spin and creating significant value for all shareholders.”
Resource base and growth focus
Barkly's immediate focus is to drill around its existing Inferred Mineral Resource, which it says covers only a small portion of a much larger landholding.
Barkly reported an Inferred Mineral Resource of 40 million tonnes at 2,100 ppm total rare earth oxide (TREO) for 82,000 tonnes of contained TREO, estimated above a 430 ppm NdPr cut-off and reported under the JORC Code (2012).
The resource includes 710 ppm magnet rare earth oxide (MREO), equating to a 34% MREO ratio, and is described as shallow, flat-lying and open in all directions.
Magnet Rare Earth Oxide ratios of regolith-hosted Mineral Resources.
The company has planned an initial 10,000 metres of shallow drilling in about 400 holes as Phase 1 of its 2026 field program, targeted to start in late March (subject to site conditions). Drilling is designed to pattern-drill within and beyond the existing exploration target to grow the current resource, test mineralisation outside the target area, investigate potential repetition at depth, and collect samples for metallurgical testwork.
Exploration target scale
An exploration target has been defined at 200–1,000 million tonnes grading 1,600–1,900 ppm TREO including 500–700 ppm NdPr, with Barkly noting the target is conceptual and subject to further drilling.
Barkly Rare Earth Element exploration target.
The company said the current target area represents about 6% of the 5,030 square kilometre Barkly Project.
On metallurgy, Barkly said testwork will start immediately and continue through 2026, building on earlier work that produced a 2.9 wt% TREO flotation concentrate and achieved 74% MREO extraction into solution using conventional leaching after caustic pre-treatment.
About Barkly Rare Earths
Barkly Rare Earths is an Australian mineral explorer targeting the discovery and development of economic mineral deposits.
The company’s flagship Barkly Project in the Northern Territory hosts an initial Inferred Mineral Resource of 40 Mt at 710 ppm magnet rare earth oxide (MREO) within 2,100 ppm total rare earth oxide (TREO), reported above a 430 ppm NdPr cut-off grade. Barkly says the resource includes a high terbium component with low uranium and thorium. Initial conventional leaching tests achieved 74% MREO extraction, while early beneficiation work returned a mineral concentrate grading 29,000 ppm TREO. The project covers 5,030 km2 and is 100% owned by the company.
Barkly also holds the Buntine Project in the Northern Territory, where the Fraynes Formation is described as chronographically equivalent to the Barney Creek Formation that hosts the McArthur River Pb-Zn deposit, making it a target for greenfields base metals exploration.
At Buntine, polymetallic mineralisation is exposed along a 9 km strike of late-Paleoproterozoic sedimentary rocks and overlying Cenozoic sediments, with 3 anomalous zones identified for Pb-Co, U-W-Pb-Ni and Zn-Pb-Co-Cu along the mineralised corridor. Barkly reports rock chip results of up to 667 ppm Zn, 1% Pb, 1,760 ppm Co, 10% Mn and 7,100 ppm Ni (refer to the BAK Prospectus dated 1 December 2025).