EV Resources (ASX: EVR) has reached operational readiness at its Tecomatlán antimony processing plant in Mexico, moving from refurbishment into active commissioning and near-term production.
The company is advancing dry commissioning of the plant’s grinding circuit — comprising three ball mills and forming the core of all processing activity — with electrical upgrades, including integration of variable frequency drives (VFD), also now complete.
A single VFD unit is being used to sequentially commission all three ball mills, significantly reducing upfront capital expenditure, with additional units to be introduced as throughput scales toward steady-state operations.
EV expects to complete dry commissioning of the full grinding circuit within four weeks, positioning the company to become a near-term antimony producer at a time of significant global supply constraint.
Critical Enabling System
The readiness of the grinding circuit—the critical enabling system of the Tecomatlán plant—confirms engineering integrity, validates EV’s staged restart strategy, and significantly reduces execution risk as the company advances towards first production.
Mechanical refurbishment of the first ball mill has been completed, comprising full alignment, machining, and drive testing.
Mill 3 is well-advanced and being completed on a structured one-mill-per-week program with final alignment, testing, and electrical commissioning progressing in parallel.
Major fabrication work has been completed off-site in Durango to optimise costs and reduce on-site labour and accommodation requirements without impacting delivery timelines.
Defining Moment for Los Lirios
Managing director Mike Brown said the company had reached a defining moment in the refurbishment of the 150-tonnes per day plant, located 50 kilometres from the Los Lirios antimony project.
“Bringing the grinding circuit — the heart of Tecomatlán — into operational readiness marks our transition from refurbishment into execution,” he said.
EV says it achieved the operational readiness milestone through disciplined capital deployment, with targeted cost management initiatives and a staged commissioning approach delivering a capital-efficient pathway to production.
“At a time when global antimony supply remains critically constrained, positioning the plant at this stage of readiness represents a genuine inflection point for our company—from here, our focus is on completing commissioning, introducing feed, and transitioning into production.”
