Larvotto Resources has commenced production of gold and antimony concentrate at its wholly owned Hillgrove Mine in New South Wales, Australia.
This development marks a key milestone for the site following an extensive redevelopment and upgrade of the processing plant last month.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The company reported that both the flotation cells and filter presses have been commissioned, enabling the production of the first batch of flotation concentrate at the facility.
The process involves initial concentration of ore in rougher flotation cells, followed by further cleaning in Jameson and cleaner flotation cells to yield a 60% antimony product.
The concentrate is thickened and filtered before final specification is achieved.
Larvotto forecasts that production from Hillgrove will reach approximately 4,900 tonnes per annum (tpa) of antimony and 40,500oz of gold.
Larvotto managing director Ron Heeks said: “Commissioning the flotation circuit and concentrate filter presses, allowing the production of our first concentrate, is the latest in a series of significant milestones achieved by Larvotto at Hillgrove, continuing the process towards establishing a steady-state operation.
“With the successful production of first concentrate, we now move into the delivery phase of the offtake agreements we have secured, namely the antimony offtake with Wogen Resources and the gold concentrate offtake with Glencore.”
The mine is expected to operate on this basis for an initial term of eight years.
Secured offtake agreements cover both antimony and gold concentrates.
A binding agreement with Wogen Resources, signed in December 2024, grants Wogen exclusive global offtake rights to antimony concentrate from Hillgrove for the first seven years of production.
Gold concentrate for the same period of seven years will be sold to Glencore under a separate agreement, with an anticipated annual offtake of around 15,000 dry tonnes.
