{"id":886354,"date":"2026-09-10T01:56:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T01:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/886354\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T01:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T01:56:20","slug":"antimony-price-spike-leads-to-new-life-for-disused-mine-near-armidale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/886354\/","title":{"rendered":"Antimony price spike leads to new life for disused mine near Armidale"},"content":{"rendered":"

The worldwide hunt for a little-known critical mineral has seen trucks moving for the first time in more than a decade at the historic Hillgrove mine just outside Armidale.<\/p>\n

Known for gold mining during the 19th century, the Northern Tablelands mine has been re-energised by growing worldwide demand for antimony.<\/p>\n

The mineral is found in a variety of products, including fire retardants, solar panel cells, storage batteries and defence manufacturing.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Trucks are moving at the mine site for the first time in a decade, carrying gold and antimony.\u00a0 (ABC News: Brigitte Murphy)<\/p>\n

Larvotto Resources said the price of antimony had more than doubled since it acquired the site in 2023, to $US26,300 ($36,357) per tonne.<\/p>\n

The site is set to officially open today, with work commencing in late August.<\/p>\n

\"Hands<\/p>\n

Antimony is a critical mineral metalloid used for fire retardants, glass manufacturing and defence manufacturing. (ABC News: Genevieve Blandin de Chalain)<\/p>\n

“Antimony has just been classified a critical mineral; there is a world shortage [and] the price is much better than what it was five years ago,” said managing director Ron Heeks.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the silvery-grey metalloid was one of the first minerals included in the federal government’s $1.2 billion critical minerals strategic reserve as crucial to Australia’s economy and national security.<\/p>\n

Production of antimony has been historically dominated by China.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ron Heeks says the mine could be at the forefront of a productivity boost for the area. (ABC News: Brigitte Murphy)<\/p>\n

Mr Heeks said reopening the mine could deliver a major opportunity now that worldwide antimony supplies were becoming more important and demand was increasing.<\/p>\n

“It’s just fundamental in so many things, and it’s largely controlled by production through China,” Mr Heeks said.<\/p>\n

“The political reasons have really driven it in a way \u2026 The cost of the antimony is not that important; it’s what it costs you if you don’t have it.”<\/p>\n

Mr Heeks said the plan was for the new mine to supply around 5,000 tonnes of antimony each year, along with more than 40,000 ounces of gold.<\/p>\n

“That makes us the seventh largest [supplier of antimony] in the world, including China,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Outside of China, we’re probably more than 50 per cent of world supply.”Global market impact<\/p>\n

Global commodities expert Daniel Rosetto said the mine’s reopening could be globally significant, but it depended on the ever-changing market.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Daniel Rosetto says the mine’s success will depend on the ever-changing market.\u00a0 (ABC NEWS: Guido Salazar)<\/p>\n

“This is a very important mine, and the US has recognised that it has a need to diversify suppliers for antimony,” Dr Rosetto said.<\/p>\n

“Clearly a facility in Australia that has the ability to produce at scale like the one proposed in Armidale is actually a very significant opportunity.”<\/p>\n

But despite the recent boom in the market price of the metalloid, Dr Rosetto said there was still risk from the global market conditions.<\/p>\n

“We’re dealing with a commodity which is quite illiquid, and it’s not possible to secure the sale value of this product for many years into the future,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Larvotto Resources says the mine will supply around 5,000 tonnes of antimony a year. (ABC News: Brigitte Murphy)<\/p>\n

Local benefit<\/p>\n

Larvotto Resources said more than 180 miners were based at the Hillgrove mine, with 95 per cent of them living locally in the New England North West region.<\/p>\n

Loader operator Micaela Shum said living locally rather than having to travel to a mine site allowed her to have a better work-life balance.<\/p>\n

“You can go home every day and see your family, not have to worry about FIFO; it’s a good work-life balance,” Ms Shum said.<\/p>\n

“It’s quite good to have something local where people don’t have to travel so far to work in the mining industry.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Micaela Shum is among the 180 employees at the Hillgrove mine. (ABC News: Brigitte Murphy)<\/p>\n

Dr Rosetto said reviving the mine could bring investment and opportunities for the local area.<\/p>\n

“I think this’ll come as a very significant benefit for the local area in particular because of the investment required in order to realise production,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That will involve a lot of employment and sundry industries as well, which will need to support the mine and its development.<\/p>\n

“Overall, I think this will be a net positive for the local community.”\"A<\/p>\n

Larvotto Resources hopes the mine’s restart will bring new opportunities for local workers and generate money for the area. (ABC News: Genevieve Blandin de Chalain)<\/p>\n

With a current mine life of eight years and plans for further development, Mr Heeks said he was hopeful the restart would be a boon for the area.<\/p>\n

“The mine has been here in one form or another for well over 100 years,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This is its most modern, environmentally friendly and world’s best practice operation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The worldwide hunt for a little-known critical mineral has seen trucks moving for the first time in more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[48445,455915,64,63,99,231766,5284,18711,455916,455918,62900,455914,455917],"class_list":["post-886354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-antimony","tag-antimony-mine","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-critical-mineral","tag-gold","tag-gold-mining","tag-hillgrove","tag-larvotto","tag-mine","tag-minging","tag-productivity-boost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}