Larvotto Resources has shipped its first antimony concentrate from the Hillgrove mine in New South Wales, a 68 tonne consignment to offtake partner Wogen Resources. Production at Hillgrove began in August and the plant produced its first antimony and gold concentrates in September. Managing director Ron Heeks said the antimony circuit is now running at a steady rate and the focus shifts to optimising gold concentrate and gold dore output.
Hillgrove is expected to produce about 4,900 tonnes of antimony and 40,500 ounces of gold a year over an initial eight year mine life. Binding offtakes cover the first seven years: Wogen for antimony concentrate and Glencore for gold concentrate. The company said plant availability is running ahead of expectations while throughput and concentrate grades improve through commissioning, and it is doing metallurgical work on a third product, tungsten recovery, targeted for 2027.
Antimony is the strategic point. It is used in flame retardants, alloys and defence applications, supply is concentrated in China, and Western buyers have few producing sources outside it. A 68 tonne first shipment is small in tonnage terms, but it converts Hillgrove from a restart project into a revenue generating producer, which is the step most Western antimony hopefuls have not reached.
Victoria’s move to build homegrown antimony processing capacity, reported separately today and noted in the roundup, points the same way: Australian policy is now backing both the mine and the midstream for a metal it previously left to imports.