Australian mining company begins plant commissioning at Hillgrove antimony-gold project

Larvotto Resources has begun staged commissioning of its Hillgrove antimony-gold plant in New South Wales. First crushed ore from the Metz underground mine reached the fine ore storage bin after passing through the primary jaw crusher, closed-circuit secondary crusher and screening circuit.

The company reported that the crushing, screening and fine ore storage section has been successfully commissioned as the first stage of the plant restart. Ore is now held in storage and will feed the milling circuit during the upcoming wet-end commissioning phase.

commissioning steps Once the fine ore bin is full, the company plans to run the crushing circuit on waste rock for a limited period. This will generate crushed rock for engineering requirements and allow operators additional time to familiarise themselves with the system.

The EPCM contractor is completing work on communications, electrical, instrumentation and control systems at the wet end of the plant before that phase begins.

targets and offtake agreements Hillgrove is forecast to become Australia’s second and largest producing antimony mine. The company expects annual output of around 4,900 tonnes of antimony and more than 40,000 ounces of gold over a seven-year mine life.

Last month the company signed a binding seven-year offtake agreement with Glencore International for 15,000 dry metric tonnes of gold concentrate per year. This complements an earlier antimony concentrate agreement with Wogen Resources.

application Larvotto Resources has submitted responses to questions from the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure regarding its Modification 5 application. The application seeks approval to increase processing capacity from 250,000 to 500,000 tonnes per year and to implement dry-stack tailings and other environmental improvements.