Hillgrove Gold Antimony
| Location: |
New South Wales |
| Local Custodian: |
|
| Development Stage: |
Pre-development |
| Project Area: |
254 km2 |
LOCATION
Located 23km east of Armidale, NSW, the Hillgrove Gold Antimony Project is strategically situated in the New England NSW Orogenic Belt, which is host to numerous gold, copper and antimony deposits.
The Hillgrove Project is ideally situated close to major infrastructure including major highways, rail links and regional airports.
Armidale is a centre of an extensive agriculture industry as well as high quality schools and home to New England University.
The Hillgrove area has seen mining for both gold and antimony since 1857, with continuous antimony production for more than 30 years until 2002 when the price fell to an all-time low.
HILLGROVE GOLD-ANTIMONY PROJECT KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- The 254km2 Hillgrove Project contains six key mining areas within 48 granted Mining Licenses
- Hillgrove is the largest Antimony Mineral Resource in Australia and is ranked #8 in the world, making it a strategically significant deposit
- Antimony is a critical mineral for multiple countries including the US, EU and Australia
- Measured & Indicated Mineral Resource of 65.5% available for conversion to Ore Reserve.
- Substantial high-grade exploration upside demonstrated by recent drilling undertaken by previous owner in 2022
- Significant capex (~$200M) invested in developing Hillgrove including $20M in past four years
- Operational processing plant & infrastructure (currently on care & maintenance)
- Geological parallels to Fosterville and Costerfield mines – Australia’s highest-grade gold mines
The Hillgrove Gold-Antimony Project is an established goldfield which boasts six key mining areas across 254km2:
- Bakers Creek
- Largest gold production centre with the deepest workings in the Hillgrove field (c.436koz)
- Recent drilling results from Bakers Creek suggest it could be another Fosterville-like deposit
- Comprises three known individual, high grade gold lodes with production from 1878 to early 1990s
- Metz Centre
- Third largest gold production centre in the field (c.64koz) comprising of Sunlight, Blacklode, Coxs Lode and Syndicate deposits
- NEAM mined antimony/gold ore from 1969–2002
Sunlight & Blacklode contain high grade (>10g/t) Au +Sb
- Brackins Spur
- Located on southern end of the Central Eleanora structure that can be traced over a 8km strike length
- Recent identification of high-grade gold resource potential
- Antimony/gold/tungsten resource drill evaluated to a depth of 500m below surface
- Eleanora / Garibaldi
- Second largest gold production centre in the field (c.122koz)
- NEAM mined antimony/gold ore from 1969–2002
- Freehold
- Moderate gold production totalling
- Historical underground development to the 10 Level (350mbs) with limited exploration due to steep terrain
- Clarks Gully
- Recent identification of resource potential with Sb/Au resource drill tested to a depth of 200m
- NEAM mined oxide gold (2.4koz) from shallow open pit in 1994/5
Larvotto plans to expand upon the success of recent drilling and infill the high-grade mineralisation at Bakers Creek and other zones, while beginning to convert the existing Mineral Resources into JORC Ore Reserves.
The current JORC Mineral Resources are detailed below. Due to the large amount of drilling information and historical underground information, a very high 65% of resource equivalent ounces (919,000oz @ 6.8g/t AuEq) are currently contained in the JORC Measured and Indicated categories.
EXPLORATION UPSIDE
- Walk up, high-grade drill targets identified
- Lodes are proven to be consistent over strike and depth
- Massive understanding of geology and metallurgy from 19,000 drill holes and underground workings
- Recent geophysics has revealed highly prospective untested zones
