EV Resources locks in historical antimony project in Mexico

EV Resources has officially sealed a 70 per cent stake in its high-grade Los Lirios antimony mine in Oaxaca, Mexico. The company now aims to fast-track the critical minerals project towards mine development thanks to a string of recent value-accretive project divestments.

The company has executed a binding assignment of mining rights over the 1552-hectare project, which includes three mining concessions. The three historic open pits and multiple underground workings previously churned out commercial-grade direct shipping ore (DSO). EVR owns 70 per cent of a new joint venture entity that holds the project.

It will now look to leverage proceeds from several recent shrewd divestments to fast-track development at Los Lirios, positioning itself to capitalise on an skyrocketing antimony market amid global, Chinese-controlled supply constraints.

EVR will now steer the ship at Los Lirios, providing management and capital to ramp up production to a targeted 300 tonnes DSO per day.

The company is wasting no time, with 30-kilogram samples already undergoing ore characterisation and mineralogy analysis. It expects to soon receive the results. The samples will feed into recovery test work focused on gravity methods, which have proven effective for antimony in Mexico.

EVR is also in talks with owners of permitted plant sites to establish a pilot processing plant. Its aggressive timeline will look to cash in on its staggeringly high-grade ore, which includes stockpile assays as high as 29.17 per cent stibnite – the primary antimony sulphide ore.

Fuelling this ambitious push are the proceeds from the company’s recent portfolio rationalisation, including the recent blockbuster sale of its Yanamina gold-silver project in Peru to TSX-listed Daura Gold for up to US$6 million (A$9.3M).

Similarly, EVR recently disposed of its Coyote Creek antimony project in Utah to Trigg Minerals for a handy $450,000 in cash and shares, delivering a tidy profit on an asset acquired for less than $150,000 just one month earlier.

The sale of the La Cienega copper project in Arizona to Magnum Mining and Exploration, with a 2 per cent royalty on future production, further bolsters the company’s future earnings potential.

The savvy divestments have armed EVR with a war chest to accelerate development at Los Lirios and its Parag copper-molybdenum porphyry project in Peru. The company’s strengthened cash position allows it to fund critical exploration and development activities, including sampling, trenching and drilling programs, which are set to kick off at Los Lirios early next year.

EVR is eyeing strategic partnerships to unlock Parag’s massive porphyry-style potential, after a previous drilling program delivered some eye-popping molybdenum intersections such as 18 metres running 1.7 per cent copper and 0.4 per cent moly from just 11m.

As Los Lirios shapes up as a cornerstone asset for the company’s Americas-focused strategy, EVR can now channel its divestment proceeds to fast-track its antimony supply. That could also help relieve the unprecedented market pressure pushing the price of the critical metal to a massive US$60,000 (A$92,000) per tonne.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au