Warriedar Resources (ASX: WA8) has announced what it believes to be Australia’s largest open-pit antimony resource at its Ricciardo deposit in Western Australia. The maiden antimony mineral resource estimate (MRE) for Ricciardo is 12.2 million tonnes at 0.5%. The company also reported a 107% increase in the project’s total MRE to 1.96 million ounces of gold equivalent at an average grade of 2.5 grams per tonne.
The discovery comes at a time when antimony prices have more than quadrupled from around $19,000/t at the beginning of 2024 to approximately $78,000/t, fueled by rising demand in the solar and defense sectors, coupled with declining production and Chinese export restrictions. Warriedar plans a dedicated antimony drilling program, alongside ongoing metallurgical test work, to advance the Golden Range opportunity. The company will also continue expanding existing gold resources at Golden Range through drilling in 2025 along the ‘Golden Corridor’.
According to Chief executive officer Amanda Buckingham, the new results included an open-pit MRE of 11.4Mt at 3.3g/t gold equivalent. She emphasized the strategic importance of the antimony find, particularly given current global supply constraints and geopolitical dynamics. Discovered in the 1990s, the Ricciardo gold deposit is located approximately 300km east of Geraldton and 8km south of the Golden Range mill.
