Having raised more than A$220 million in July, Larvotto Resources has officially entered the development phase for its Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales, with first production slated for the June quarter of 2026. 

MNN spoke to Larvotto's non-exec chair, Mark Tomlinson, in the main tent at the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum last week, where he outlined what looks to have been a textbook counter-cyclical asset purchase back in 2023.  

"About 18 months ago, we paid the exorbitant price of $3 million for the asset," Tomlinson said.  

"Today, our market capitalisation is over $300 million." 

 

At the time of the buy, antimony prices were at US$9000 per tonne and gold prices around $2000 per ounce. 

"We thought [antimony prices] would bump up to $10,000, $12,000, or maybe $15,000 a tonne, and we'd do very well at that level," Tomlinson said.  

"And, of course, it's hit $60,000/t." 

This is not to mention the gold price, which has held levels around $3300–3400/oz for the past several months.  

So far as the antimony goes, Tomlinson said it was more than just a shot in the dark for Larvotto, which had done serious due diligence work before clinching the Hillgrove purchase.  

"The Chinese were the major mine supplier, as well as processor … but their mine supply has declined 70% in 12 years," he said.  

"We could see a structural decline in supply, and demand is growing with solar panels, flame retardants, alloys, semi-conductors. There's a real break in the market that is undersupplied." 

A May feasibility study for Hillgrove, assuming a gold price of $2850/oz and antimony price of $41,000/t, ascribed the asset a post-tax net present value of A$694 million and internal rate of return of 102%. 

At US$3300/oz gold and $57,000/t antimony, closer to current spot levels, Hillgrove has an NPV of A$1.27 billion and IRR of 153%.  

The mine will cost around $130 million to build and, once up and running, is expected to produce more than 40,000oz of gold and around 4900t of antimony per year over an eight-year operating life.  

"It will put out [at a base-case scenario] EBITDA of about $250 million per year — not much less than our market capitalisation," Tomlinson said. 

Larvotto raised US$105 million via a senior secured bond issue last month. A week later, it raised A$60 million through a share placement pricing new stock at 68c per share.  

Combined with its $26.6 million in the bank at the end of June, Tomlinson said the company was comfortably funded all the way to production. 

"We're about to push the button on appointing the construction contractors and the underground mining contractors, all in coming weeks, and we'll be away in April of next year." 

Shares in Larvotto currently trade at 72c per share, capitalising the stock at $345 million. It traded at 12c this time last year.