Mr Heeks also said a new mineralised zone, associated with a geochemical anomaly immediately south of the planned open pit at Clarks Gully, has been identified and further drilling will be undertaken to define the mineralisation.

At the company’s prospective Bakers Creek ground, where drilling earlier this year at the Big Reef lode returned a whopping 31m intersection grading 65.8g/t gold equivalent, a diamond drill program has encountered visible gold in the first hole drilled at the Big Reef mineralised zone.

Visible gold was intersected at 308, 311m and 314m within a zone of quartz breccia and alteration.

Management says the hole is planned to a depth of 600m and is expecting to intersect more mineralisation as it drills deeper.

Encouragingly for the company, any mineralisation found at Bakers Creek sits outside the known mineral resource and offers the potential to boost the overall Hillgrove economics significantly.

Larvotto revealed a pre-feasibility study in August with compelling numbers, including a head-turning EBITDA of $652 million across a seven-year mine life with a pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 80 per cent and post-tax IRR of 50 per cent.

All the numbers were predicated on very conservative prices of US$2000 (AU$3068) per gold ounce and US$15,000 (AU$23,015) per tonne of antimony, suggesting there may be some serious upside to the project using current spot prices.

The gold price today sits at US$2654 (AU$4072), with antimony soaring recently to US$33,500 (AU$51,425), providing plenty of scope for optimism about the project’s future economics.

Management is awaiting assays for a further 14 holes from the 54-hole RC program. Two diamond rigs are on site at Hillgrove and the company plans to ramp up drilling activities early next year.

Larvotto continues to find shallow gold and antimony within 120m from surface. With the company now focused on deeper diamond drilling, the Hillgrove resource which currently has Australia’s biggest antimony deposit, may just keep getting bigger – as will the economics around this project.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au