Larvotto drill hits add shine to NSW Hillgrove gold-antimony target

Larvotto Resources has wasted little time putting solid drilling proof behind its fresh Midas exploration target at Hillgrove, with the company’s latest holes delivering a record gold-antimony hit from the near-mine lode in New South Wales.

The standout result came from a diamond hole which bored through 8m assaying 16.11 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent from 301m, including 4.5m at 27.78g/t gold equivalent from 302.5m depth. Larvotto says the intercept is the highest-grade gold-antimony result yet recorded at Midas and shows the lode can host mineral-rich shoots similar to those mined at the nearby Syndicate lode.

A second hole, collared off the same location, added width to the story, returning 29.7m at 2.19g/t gold equivalent from 339m, including 10m at 4.11g/t from 358m. 

That intercept came from an estimated 350m below surface and lines up with nearby underground development along the Blacklode mineralised trend. Blacklode cross-cuts the Midas trend, giving the company another pointer to Midas’ potential as a readily accessible growth front.

The new assays have landed just two days after Larvotto outlined a preferred-case initial exploration target for Midas of 3.95 million tonnes grading 5.16g/t gold equivalent, for 656,000 gold equivalent ounces. 

Importantly, that conceptual target, based on current drilling, historical mine data, surface geochemistry and IP geophysics, was put together before the foregoing assays from the two holes became available, giving management an additional layer of confidence in the project’s near-mine growth story.

The northwest-trending Midas lode is interpreted as the northern continuation of the Syndicate lode, separated by the east-west-trending Blacklode and Endurance structures. 

The total heft of data from historical workings, surface geochemistry, geophysics and drilling now outlines a mineralised Midas trend running for about 900m of strike and, so far, extending to a depth of 560m below surface, while remaining open to the north and at depth.

The company says Midas is directly accessible from existing underground development, which could help bring it into the mine schedule ahead of deeper mineralisation if its continued drilling stacks up. 

Larvotto Resources managing director Ron Heeks said: “The excellent drill results from Midas strengthen our confidence in our recently-announced Exploration Target for the Midas Lode and demonstrate both wider widths and higher grades of mineralisation than used in the Midas Exploration Target estimate. To identify easily accessible mineralisation along strike from the current area of active mining is an excellent result and two rigs are now infilling and extending the zone to the north.” 

Unsurprisingly, Larvotto now has two drill rigs on Midas, with assays still pending for another two follow-up holes as the company closes in on its first mineral resource estimate for the lode.

Larvotto is planning a further 45 holes for 15,000m of drilling at nominal 125m spacing from surface and underground positions to build sufficient coverage for its upcoming Midas resource. 

It is also weighing up the possibility of extending an existing underground development drive to allow drilling from underground positions. Meanwhile, the parallel Coxes Reef target, 500m southeast of the southern end of Midas, is also seeing first-pass drilling.

Elsewhere, the company is reviewing the tungsten potential across Hillgrove, adding another strategic thread to a project already centred on antimony and gold.

Although previous operators at Hillgrove began installing a dedicated hydrometallurgical extraction circuit for the heavy metal,  it was never completed or put into operation. Because the focus was heavily on gold and antimony, the tungsten - mostly occurring as the mineral scheelite - often went unassayed and was historically lost straight to the tailings storage facilities. 

That tungsten angle has gained extra market bite after today’s commodities reports flagged that China’s exports of tungsten to Japan have almost completely stopped amid a diplomatic row, while magnet rare earths flows are reportedly at their lowest since May last year. With China dominating global tungsten supply, any fresh squeeze on Asian flows adds another layer of interest to Hillgrove’s largely untapped tungsten credits.

Hillgrove already sits at the centre of Larvotto’s push to restart one of Australia’s more strategically important antimony-gold operations. The company’s March quarterly report said Hillgrove hosts Australia’s largest antimony deposit and is expected to produce about 4900 tonnes of antimony a year once production recommences, equal to about seven per cent of global mine supply.

The broader project is also fully funded for a production restart, with the company reporting $82 million in cash at the end of March and a $52 million undrawn bond facility. 

With four diamond rigs now active across its Hillgrove operation, including at Midas and Clarks Gully, Larvotto appears intent on adding more ounces and tonnes before the plant begins humming again.

For a lode named Midas, the latest assays are doing their best to live up to the label. The next test will be whether follow-up drilling can keep turning shiny intercepts into the resource inventory needed to stretch Hillgrove’s mine life.

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