Warriedar Resources (ASX: WA8) has obtained promising preliminary antimony (Sb) metallurgical testwork results from Ricciardo, the largest deposit within its flagship Golden Range Project, located in the Murchison region of Western Australia,
Diamond drilling undertaken at Ricciardo this year revealed high-grade antimony intervals, such as 1.9m at 28.5% Sb. When coupled with subsequent review of historical drill assay results, it revealed significant antimony Mineral Resource potential at Ricciardo.
Given this potential, Sb mineralised core samples from the 2024 diamond program were despatched for initial metallurgical testing. The preliminary testwork results received demonstrate primary antimony recovery of 83% achieved from single-stage closed-circuit flotation with grinding size 65% passing 75 microns (μm). The resulting concentrate graded at 38.5% antimony with a composition considered to be readily marketable.
The initial mineralogy study showed the dominated antimony minerals at Ricciardo are stibnite and berthierite, which are also commonly found in major antimony mines globally, including Costerfield in Australia and Alpha-Gravelotte in South Africa.
Further work is underway to optimise antimony recovery and concentrate grade. Given the positive initial outcomes, Warriedar is sourcing additional antimony assay data for Ricciardo and proceeding towards estimation of a maiden antimony Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) during Q1 2025.
“These initial met results for the primary antimony mineralisation at Ricciardo are undeniably exciting,” Managing Director and CEO, Amanda Buckingham, said.
“The context to them is the significant volume of antimony at Ricciardo, including high-grade zones that appear relatively discrete from the high-er- grade gold mineralisation, that are not yet well-defined but show serious scale and grade potential.
“While we are excited about this emerging opportunity at Ricciardo, I want to emphasise again however that pursuit of this opportunity will be in parallel with our growth-focussed gold drilling at Golden Range, which remains our current core focus.”