Victoria’s minerals industry supports the Victorian Government’s Advancing Antimony Grants program calling for proposals to establish antimony processing in the state.
The state has a unique gold-antimony province in the north-east including the Costerfield Mine near Heathcote, and Southern Cross Gold’s (ASX:SX2) Sunday Creek Project near Kilmore.
The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) says it has been advocating for research and development of critical minerals pilot processing plants, building on the advocacy for supporting policy settings to grow regional jobs and support local communities.
MCA says bringing geology into the VCE curriculum and reducing Victoria’s punishing royalty rates will help get mines developed, along with reducing mining approval timeframes, better road, rail and port infrastructure and building a pipeline of skills from schools to universities.
Antimony is currently produced at the Costerfield gold deposit in Victoria and, until January 2016, was produced at the Hillgrove deposit in New South Wales until declining antimony prices forced its closure. Domestic mine production totalled 2,003 tonnes in 2019 – down from 3,570 tonnes in 2018.
Historically, mining at Costerfield has taken place over a length of 8km, north to south, with the current focus of mining, the Augusta lodes, at the southern end, according to Geoscience Australia.
According to the Australiasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), mining contributes more than $13 billion to Victoria’s economy annually, creating 121,000 jobs.
On the global front, China dominates antimony production, resources and demand. China’s share of global antimony resources amounts to 32%, followed by Russia (23%), Bolivia (21%), and Australia (7%).
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
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