Warriedar Resources reports high antimony recovery from test work at Golden Range

Warriedar Resources (ASX: WA8) has achieved an important breakthrough in its strategy to obtain additional value through the significant antimony upside at its Golden Range project in Western Australia.

While the project’s gold resources remain the primary focus, Warriedar is moving quickly to take advantage of antimony’s dramatic price increase this year.

The company has received promising preliminary antimony metallurgical test work results from Ricciardo, Golden Range’s largest deposit.

Antimony intervals

The metallurgical studies follow diamond drilling (DD) success at Ricciardo earlier this year, which revealed high-grade intervals such as 1.9m at 28.5% antimony.

The company further confirmed the antimony potential with a subsequent review of historical drill assay results that revealed significant antimony mineral resource potential at Ricciardo.

Chief executive officer Amanda Buckingham said those positive results led to the company sending mineralised core samples from the 2024 DD program for initial metallurgical testing.

Readily marketable

The preliminary test work results demonstrate a primary antimony recovery of 83% achieved from single-stage closed-circuit flotation with a grinding size of 65% passing 75 microns.

Ms Buckingham added that the concentrate, grading at 38.5% antimony, contained a composition considered to be readily marketable.

“The context to this is the significant volume of antimony at Ricciardo, including high-grade zones that appear relatively discrete from the higher-grade gold mineralisation,” Ms Buckingham said.

“These zones are not yet well-defined but show serious scale and grade potential.”

Dominant minerals

One of the key findings of an initial mineralogy study of Ricciardo mineralisation was that the dominant antimony minerals at Ricciardo are stibnite and berthierite, which are also commonly found in major antimony mines including Costerfield in Australia and Alpha-Gravelotte in South Africa.

Warriedar is now undertaking additional studies into how to optimise antimony recovery and increase concentrate grade.

Ms Buckingham said that, on the back of the positive initial outcomes, Warriedar is sourcing additional antimony assay data for Ricciardo and progressing towards the estimation of a maiden antimony mineral resource estimate during Q1 2025.

Growing demand

ResearchAndMarkets.com has reported that the global demand for antimony is estimated at around $3.8 billion in 2024.

This is projected to reach approximately $5.3b by 2030, representing a 6.2% compound annual growth rate over this period.

Major factors driving demand for the critical metal include its extensive use in flame retardants, lead-acid batteries, electrical and electronic applications and as a plastic additive.