Larvotto Resources has signed a seven-year mine-gate offtake agreement with Glencore for approximately 15,000 dry metric tonnes per year of gold concentrate from its 100%-owned Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales, with Glencore handling all logistics to end customers. Combined with an existing antimony concentrate offtake with Wogen Resources, the deal locks in marketing for Hillgrove’s primary concentrates ahead of first production, with plant commissioning targeted for August. Metallurgical testwork has reported 90% tungsten recovery and a 16-fold feed grade upgrade, supporting a simple, low-cost circuit for a potential tungsten by-product.

Remote control mining excavator specialist BuilderX, led by founder Shaolong Sui, argues that excavation—not haulage—has become the main bottleneck to further mine automation, even as autonomous haul trucks move from pilots to large fleets with clear ROI. Sui positions teleoperated and semi-autonomous excavators as the next step to unlock productivity gains where manned digging still constrains fully automated truck fleets. For mine planners and OEMs, the message is to prioritise interface standards, control latency, and operator ergonomics at the shovel face rather than only optimising haulage.

Gold’s long-term bull case is being tied by Sprott to the late stages of a global debt cycle, with US federal debt near 120% of GDP, annual deficits around 5% of GDP and interest costs approaching US$1 trillion a year, eroding confidence in sovereign bonds. Central banks bought 244 tonnes of gold in Q1 2026 and, in cases like Turkey, sold US Treasuries while largely retaining gold via swaps, treating bullion as core collateral rather than a trading asset. Sprott argues this shift, combined with constrained mine supply, supports gold as a structural store of value even as spot prices recently slipped to about US$4,230/oz.