Hillgrove underground restart: stability and safety takeaways for mine engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Larvotto Resources has begun underground development at its Hillgrove antimony–gold project in New South Wales, re‑opening historical workings to access high‑grade antimony and refractory gold mineralisation. The restart involves rehabilitating existing declines and levels, upgrading ground support, and re‑establishing services to support modern mechanised mining fleets. For geotechnical and mining teams, early focus will be on re‑assessing legacy excavation stability, water inflows and ventilation capacity to safely transition Hillgrove back into sustained underground production.
Technical Brief
- Rehabilitation is being staged to allow progressive re‑entry while maintaining exclusion zones around unassessed headings.
- Safety management is being framed around modern mechanised mining, contrasting with earlier, more labour‑intensive methods on site.
- Similar brownfield underground restarts are likely to adopt phased re‑entry and legacy‑support audits as baseline practice.
Our Take
Antimony appears far less frequently than gold in our database, so Hillgrove’s restart in New South Wales signals one of the relatively few Australian projects that can supply this critical metalloid alongside precious metal output.
Within the 858 tag-matched pieces on Projects and Safety, underground restarts in NSW like Hillgrove typically face tighter scrutiny on ground control and ventilation standards than new greenfield pits, which can influence both scheduling and contractor selection.
Larvotto Resources’ exposure to both gold and antimony at Hillgrove gives it a mixed revenue profile that, in our coverage, is uncommon among junior Australian miners, potentially cushioning the project against single-commodity price swings.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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