Larvotto plots ‘rapid pathway to production’

Larvotto Resources believes plant capacity at its Hillgrove gold-antimony project could more than double following encouraging findings from testwork.

A preliminary engineering study completed by Mincore, a leading process engineering and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, indicated the potential for gold concentrates of 150 grams per tonne (g/t) grade to be produced from the Hillgrove processing plant.

The facility has historically produced 50g/t gold concentrates.

“As expected, the Hillgrove gold and antimony mine is shaping up to be an exciting opportunity that provides Larvotto Resources with a rapid pathway to production,” Larvotto managing director Ron Heeks said.

The Hillgrove processing plant has demonstrated the capacity to produce gold doré (gold bars), antimony concentrate, and gold concentrate with minimal upgrades required to elevate the throughput to 500,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) – more than double that of historical operations (220,000tpa).

“This will significantly decrease unit production costs while increasing gold and antimony production,” Heeks said.

“Scoping level testwork undertaken on historical concentrate also indicates the multi-gravity separator is a potential gamechanger for the Hillgrove gold mine.

“Taking the gold concentrate grades from around 40g/t gold to over 150g/t provides a high-quality gold concentrate with very low impurities that will maximise the return on sales.”

A Hillgrove plant upgrade would include the addition of a secondary crushing circuit, a small regrind circuit, and additional fine ore storage. The antimony and gold flotation capacity would also need to be increased.

The new secondary crushing circuit, including the crusher, screens and most steelwork are already on-site, having been previously identified and purchased in 2022 as being required for optimal plant performance.

Larvotto will commence detailed studies to further validate its preliminary findings.