Larvotto Resources (ASX:LRV) has achieved 90% tungsten recovery through its ongoing metallurgical testwork program at the Hillgrove Antimony and Gold Project in New South Wales.
The program was intended to test the viability of using tungsten as a byproduct, which increased the feed grade by 16 times and confirmed minimal tungsten losses to tailings.
By adjusting the collector and depressant levels, Larvotto has also marked reductions in silica content and pinpointed pathways to decrease calcium and magnesium impurities.
The company will continue to optimise the collector and depressant balance, while also refining the flotation process with different collector combinations and testing tungsten concentrate with refined acid leaching.
Larvotto will engage gravity separation company Sepro to assist in generating commercialised tungsten concentrate. The company says Sepro has a proven track record in generating saleable tungsten concentrates using either gravity-only separation or a combination of gravity separation and flotation.
Managing Director Ron Heeks says the aforementioned results returned from testwork supports the company’s intentions, which will be followed up to establish the parameters for a scalable recovery circuit that can produce concentrates for export or downstream refining.
“Whilst tungsten has historically been mined with antimony and gold at Hillgrove as it is usually present in the same veins, it has never been extracted in the process plant,” Heeks says.
“However, given this year’s record high tungsten prices, as well as the Hillgrove Processing Plant already containing a dedicated tungsten gravity circuit, that was never utilised, we decided to investigate the viability of tungsten recovery as a byproduct alongside gold and antimony.
“With recent drilling at Freehold confirming that all anomalous tungsten results are associated with antimony-gold mineralisation structures, we remain very enthusiastic about the potential of adding tungsten to our production schedule at Hillgrove.”
The company recently returned assays from Freehold, including 0.6m @ 2.23% tungsten trioxide from 76.7m and 0.5m @ 3.43% WO3 from 154.8m.
The Hillgrove Project hosts a mineral resource estimate of 4,774 tonnes WO3 (8,766kt @ 0.05% WO3) including key contributions from the Brackins Spur and Clarks Gully areas.
As reported by Mining.com.au, the company intends to produce 7% of the global antimony supply once the project comes into production, delivering 40,500 ounces of gold and 4,878 tonnes of antimony each year.
Larvotto Resources is an Australian explorer focused on developing its dual-commodity Hillgrove Project, which is set to begin production in 2026.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Larvotto Resources
