- 01ANT begins 200t campaign at Tecomatlán.
- 02Testing will assess marketable concentrate potential.
- 03Los Lirios and Nevada exploration advanced.
Antimony Resources (ASX: ANT) has begun processing its first 200 tonnes of third-party antimony material at the Tecomatlán plant in Mexico following commissioning of the facility.
The campaign, launched after the September quarter, is intended to establish whether the operation can produce a marketable antimony concentrate and support a larger processing business.
The company completed a $1.52 million rights issue during the quarter and ended September with $1.12m in cash, equivalent to an estimated 0.9 quarters of funding at its reported expenditure rate.
It also advanced exploration at its Los Lirios project in Mexico and defined initial geochemical targets at its Dollar and Milton projects in Nevada.
First Concentrate Campaign
Tecomatlán received the initial Chinantla parcel in September and completed crushing before starting the first plant-scale campaign on 15 October after dry and wet commissioning.
Under a binding five-year agreement with Chinantla, approximately 8 kilometres from the plant, individual purchases require accepted confirmations and neither party must supply a minimum quantity.
The initial parcel carried laboratory grades of 13% to 16% antimony, while independent testing of the resulting concentrate will establish its grade, recovery and impurity profile.
Bench-scale testing of another potential supplier, Vinatas, delivered up to 78.6% flotation recovery and a 68.3% antimony concentrate after gravity upgrading, although its supply arrangement remains non-binding.
The company is targeting a fully integrated 150-tonnes-per-day plant within an estimated 10 to 12 months under a separate development pathway, subject to funding, technical outcomes and approvals.
Los Lirios Antimony Targets
At the 70%-owned Los Lirios antimony project, mapping identified four previously unrecognised feeder vein systems and four hydrothermal breccia targets within an expanding exploration inventory.
Work also outlined a mineralised corridor approximately 900 metres long and 200m wide, with 31 channel samples submitted for laboratory analysis.
Certified laboratory testing at Cofradia returned 2.2m at 5.20% antimony, below the earlier handheld portable X-ray fluorescence reading of 5.66%, and environmental authorisation was confirmed for second-phase drilling.
Los Lirios carries a conceptual exploration target of 1.8 million tonnes to 5.0Mt containing 70,000 to 166,000t of antimony.
In Nevada, a 567-sample soil program delineated a 1,100m anomalous corridor at Milton and two zoned mineral systems at Dollar, providing targets for further sampling and geophysical assessment.
Capital Position
The September-quarter financing included the completed rights issue and an unsecured $500,000 facility from related-party Allgreen Holdings carrying annual interest of 10%.
Operating cash outflows were $1.247m, and the company reported $1.118m in closing cash with no unused loan facilities available at quarter end.
Antimony Resources is pursuing initial concentrate sales, longer-term offtake and associated finance, strategic investment ,and potential US government-related funding to support ongoing activity.
"Our new name says exactly what we do—with a consolidated capital structure, a renewed leadership team, and the rights issue completed, our focus is on completing the proof-of-concept campaign and producing our first antimony concentrate,” executive chair Shane Menere said.
“Beyond that milestone, our objective is to work with the right strategic and offtake partners to build secure antimony supply for North American markets.”
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