With antimony prices hitting an all time high and the Chinese government banning exports of the valuable military metal, Octava Minerals is cranking up the drill rig at its Yallalong antimony project 200km east of Kalbarri in Western Australia. The drill bit is set to touch down this weekend at Yallalong for a highly anticipated 3000m reverse circulation (RC) drill program just as the silvery metal hits an all-time high of US$33,000 a tonne.
The company’s Discovery and Central zones are the focus of the campaign with both situated along a promising 10km mineralised corridor which features some impressive historic shows of antimony.
The Discovery target is the primary focus of the project and has already yielded some of the highest-grade antimony intersections in Australia.
Historic drilling results include a 7m zone grading some 3.77 per cent antimony from 12m including 1m running at 11.5 per cent antimony from 18m and a 3m hit grading 6.83 per cent antimony from 21m with a 1m section hitting grades as high as 13.6 per cent from 22m.
The prior hits span a strike length of around 300m and remain open to the north and south between the regional scale Darling and Woodrarung faults.
Following work at Discovery, the drill rig will move two kilometres north to the Central target. Unlike Discovery Central has never been drilled before, However rock chips there were reported to contain antimony at an off-the-scale grade of 60 per cent. The company believes this zone could add significant value to the project as a new source of high-grade antimony.
Octava recently completed a detailed geophysical survey over the Yallalong corridor and says the data is currently being processed and should aid in identifying additional drilling targets along the structural belt. Heritage surveys for two prospects further north at Yallalong in the No. 4 and North prospects are scheduled for December, setting the stage for additional maiden drilling of the untested targets in early 2025.
Octava Minerals managing director Bevan Wakelam said: “It’s great to have the rig heading to site and earlier than we had planned. The drilling will start on Discovery, then move to the Central target and should take about 2 weeks to complete. High-grade antimony has already been intersected at Discovery over a significant strike length and this drilling will further test the size. We will also twin some of the previously drilled holes.”
The Yallalong project encompasses two exploration licenses with a combined area of 157 square kilometres. The project was previously considered prospective for nickel, copper and precious metals however the resurgence of antimony has for the time being pushed the others to the side.
In addition to its focus on Yallalong, Octava is progressing exploration at its Byro project southeast of Carnarvon, which shows significant potential for large-scale, low-cost rare earths and lithium.
With a solid cash position following a recent $1 million raise, Octava is well-equipped to unlock its antimony potential at Yallalong as the world starts to clamour for “critical minerals in an increasingly unstable geopolitical environment.
Antimony, critical to technologies like semi-conductors, solar, flame retardants and military applications, has experienced soaring demand this year, exacerbated by a recent export ban in August from China which accounts for around 50 per cent of global production. China has also banned exports in other critical minerals such as gallium and germanium.
In 2022 the US alone consumed 22,000 tonnes of antimony – 63 per cent of which was sourced from China. The next largest supplier, Belgium, only accounted for 8 per cent of those imports.
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By Andrew Todd
