SCALE MEETS STRATEGY: AUSTRALIA'S CRITICAL MINERALS BUILDERS

LARVOTTO'S RAPID RESTART OF THE HILLGROVE PROJECT COMES AS AUSTRALIA MOVES TO SECURE DOMESTIC SUPPLIES OF CRITICAL MINERALS, SIGNALLING A SHIFT TO FASTER DELIVERY AND PRODUCTION-READY PROJECTS.

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At the Hillgrove Project in northern New South Wales, Larvotto Resources is executing one of the most advanced critical minerals builds currently underway in Australia.

In less than two years, the historic gold and antimony operation has progressed from administration under its previous owner to a fully financed project nearing production, with Larvotto targeting first output in mid-2026.

For managing director Ron Heeks, Hillgrove is defined by execution rather than its exploration upside.

“We’re builders and operators,” he told Australian Mining. “This is about taking a real asset and getting it into production quickly, safely and at meaningful scale.”

That focus aligns closely with Australia’s emerging policy direction. In January, the Federal Government announced a $1.2 billion Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve, with antimony, gallium and rare earth elements named as the first minerals to be secured due to their importance to national security, clean energy and advanced manufacturing.

Hillgrove is permitted to process 250,000 tonnes per annum (tpa), with infrastructure already in place to lift throughput to 500,000tpa without increasing the project’s footprint. The move to dry-stack tailings enables that expansion while allowing Larvotto to retreat historic tailings deposited in the 1980s.

“Our footprint actually gets smaller as we scale up because we’re moving to dry-stack tailings rather than wet tailings,” Heeks said.