Larvotto Resources (ASX:LRV) has dispatched drill samples from its Hillgrove Gold-Antimony Project in New South Wales to Independent Metallurgical Laboratories in Perth to have testwork on the historic Tailings Storage Facility (TSF1) conducted.
The testwork will determine if the remnant gold, antimony, and tungsten can be viably recovered.
Larvotto, which has a market capitalisation of $14.75 million, says if the tailings dam can be economically retreated, it will also support rehabilitation of the site as the material will be moved to a ‘new, larger’ facility in a substantially better location for tailings storage.
Managing Director Ron Heeks says there is a potential to add ‘significant’ further resource gold ounces with antimony and tungsten credits from the old tailings storage that was used from 1982 up until 2002.
“Larvotto has the potential to treat these tailings independently or combined with future underground feed to the processing plant onsite.”
Analytical gold, antimony, and tungsten grade results from the completed drilling program at the project is anticipated to be available within weeks.
Larvotto’s TSF1 is a New England Antimony Mines (NEAM) era tailings storage facility that sits wholly on current mining leases, covering a 113,300m-square and contains 1.4 million tonnes of tailings as confirmed by production records and survey.
Meanwhile, metallurgical recovery testwork is expected to take several months to complete.
Heeks adds that the Hillgrove project has historically focused on extracting antimony, resulting in a ‘considerable’ amount of gold not being extracted from the processed ore, as well as no tungsten.
“The drill program undertaken was conducted to assess the metallurgical viability of retreating the 1.4-million-tonne of historic tailings given the high gold, antimony, and tungsten values it contains.
The Hillgrove mineral resource contains 1.4 million ounce gold-equivalent (AuEq) at 6.1 grams per tonne (g/t) AuEq.”
The Hillgrove project sits 23km east of Armidale in New South Wales and covers a 254km-square area, containing 4 exploration leases and 48 granted mining leases.
Larvotto Resources is a diversified minerals explorer actively advancing its portfolio of in-demand mineral projects.
As of 30 September 2023, the company had $1.605 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report. Post-quarter-end, Larvotto completed an entitlement offer that raised $2.74 million.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Larvotto Resources
