EV Resources Procures High-Grade Antimony Ore for Tecomatlán Proof-of-Concept Campaign

EV Resources (ASX: EVR) has purchased 200 dry tonnes of high-grade antimony ore from the Chinantla mine in Mexico to feed a proof-of-concept (PoC) processing campaign at the Tecomatlán plant.

The company’s Mexican subsidiary Stibcorp SA de CV purchased the ore from stockpiles held by a local Chinantla operator, the first secured under a recent five-year ore supply agreement.

The ore has been mined and stored approximately eight kilometres from the Tecomatlán gates, with haulage scheduled to commence within the fortnight.

The parcel forms part of a larger lot totalling approximately 500t, and EV may be permitted to buy the remaining 300t once the initial batch has been fully commercialised to an end buyer.

PoC testing will enable EV to put the mechanically ready plant through a full commercial cycle for the first time and follows dry commissioning and testing of the crushing, grinding, and flotation circuits.

High-Grade Material

Laboratory results on samples of Chinantla’s stockpiled ore returned grades of up to 16% antimony sulphide, while earlier flotation test work demonstrated recoveries of 81.1% antimony and a concentrate grading 42.4%, upgradeable to 62.9%.

EV expects the running of high-grade material through the Tecomatlán circuit for the first PoC campaign to reduce the risk of an inconclusive result and give a clean baseline read on plant performance before lower-grade regional feed is introduced.

Executive chair Shane Menere said the PoC campaign would test the company’s regional hub model from third-party ore purchasing through to concentrate production.

“This is the point where the strategy moves from assembling the pieces to demonstrating the complete commercial cycle—buying regional ore, processing it through our own plant, and producing a marketable antimony concentrate,” he said.

“We have deliberately structured the purchase so that capital follows the ore, with only 12.5% payable upfront and final consideration reconciled against the tonnes and grade actually processed—the objective of this campaign is simple: establish real operating data, demonstrate the model, and create the platform from which Tecomatlán can be scaled.”

Regional Processing Hub

Tecomatlán is being developed as a regional processing hub for antimony miners across Puebla, Oaxaca and Guerrero that have limited access to nearby processing capacity as alternative facilities can be located as far as 1,200 kilometres away.

Ore from these third parties is purchased by EV on benchmark-linked terms, hauled a short distance and processed through the company’s own flowsheet into a concentrate for sale.

Each step generates pricing, recovery and cost information that will inform how EV contracts and operates at commercial scale.

EV Resources is building an integrated North American antimony value chain, combining regional ore supply and processing at Tecomatlán with potential future proprietary feed from its Los Lirios antimony project, and direct US exposure through its Nevada assets.

The company is fully-funded through the planned PoC phase and intends to pursue strategic and offtake partnerships to accelerate its objective of supplying antimony into the domestic market.