Larvotto Resources has officially joined the ranks of Australia's critical minerals producers, shipping its first batch of antimony concentrate from the company's Hillgrove antimony-gold mine in New South Wales to offtake partner Wogen Resources.
The company says the first truck carrying 68 tonnes of antimony concentrate has left the site, initiating mine-gate offtake sales and making Larvotto Australia's newest supplier of critical minerals.
Under the mine-gate offtake agreement, Wogen Resources collected the high-grade concentrate directly from Hillgrove for an initial part-payment, allowing cash to start flowing without the long shipping delays and distant laboratory results that can often hamstring new producers. A second, final payment will follow once independent assays confirm final metal content.
The major milestone follows an extensive redevelopment and plant upgrade program at Hillgrove, which is set to produce 4900 tonnes of antimony and 40,500 ounces of gold per year, making it one of the world's largest antimony producers and giving it control of 7 per cent of global supply.
Management says the production ramp-up is progressing well, with plant availability already exceeding schedule, daily processing tonnages increasing as planned and concentrate grades continuing to improve as the operational team fine-tunes plant performance.
Larvotto Resources managing director Ron Heeks said: "As the first of the three products the plant produces, the focus has been on the antimony circuit. With the antimony circuit now operating at a steady rate, we will broaden our focus to optimise gold concentrate and gold doré production."
The Hillgrove project, 23 kilometres east of Armidale in northern NSW, already hosts a significant mineral resource of 1.7 million ounces of gold equivalent at an impressive grade of 7.4 grams per tonne (g/t).