First concentrate produced at Larvotto's Hillgrove antimony-gold mine in Australia

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 21, Larvotto Resources announced that its Hillgrove antimony-gold mine in New South Wales, Australia, has produced its first batch of gold concentrate and antimony concentrate. The flotation system and concentrate filter press at the project's processing plant have completed commissioning, and following the resumption of production at the end of August, Hillgrove has entered the concentrate production and capacity ramp-up phase. The company expects average annual production of approximately 4,900 tonnes of antimony and 40,500 ounces of gold over the project's initial 8-year mine life.

The Hillgrove processing circuit has begun operating the antimony rougher flotation, Jameson cleaner and subsequent cleaner flotation stages. After further impurity removal, the rougher concentrate can produce a concentrate product with an antimony content of approximately 60%, which then enters thickener tanks to increase slurry density before excess water is removed through filter press equipment to form antimony concentrate meeting sale specifications.

Long-term sales channels have been secured for both of Hillgrove's main concentrate products. Antimony concentrate is exclusively offtaken by Wogen Resources under an agreement covering the first 7 years after the mine enters production; gold concentrate is offtaken by Glencore International, also covering the first 7 years of production, with expected annual sales of approximately 15,000 dry tonnes of gold concentrate.

After upgrading, the existing processing facilities at the Hillgrove project have a designed annual processing capacity of approximately 525,000 tonnes and can produce antimony concentrate, gold concentrate and gold doré. The 2025 definitive feasibility study confirmed underground mining reserves of approximately 3.5 million tonnes, with annual underground ore processing of approximately 320,000 to 535,000 tonnes, plus planned open-pit ore mining of approximately 350,000 tonnes. Average annual production over the full mine life is approximately 85,000 ounces of gold equivalent, with a peak of approximately 102,000 ounces of gold equivalent in the second year.

Hillgrove is located approximately 23 kilometers east of Armidale in New South Wales, with current mineral resources of approximately 1.7 million ounces of gold equivalent at an average grade of 7.4 g/t gold equivalent. The company's current priorities include increasing the processing plant's throughput load, stabilizing the operation of the flotation and concentrate filtration systems, and gradually ramping up to design capacity.