Larvotto deploys cutting-edge ECORE scanner on NSW antimony-gold play
Larvotto Resources has purchased and received Canada-based Elemission’s game-changing ECORE automatic core scanning system. The new technology will make the company’s NSW Hillgrove antimony-gold project the only operating mine site in Australia equipped with on-site laser ablation and atomic emission spectroscopy capability.
The ECORE system delivers near real-time, high-resolution multi-element geochemistry and quantitative mineralogy.
Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove geology staff with ECORE Elemission technician and ECORE scanner.
The benchtop unit, currently installed at Hillgrove, 30 kilometers east of Armidale in NSW, dredges new drill core within hours of reaching the surface. The improved turnaround represents a significant leap forward from the weeks or months traditionally required for off-site laboratory analyzes and other QEMSCAN studies.
For Larvotto’s exploration team, the new scanning technology translates into instant visualization of antimony, gold and gangue distribution, alteration halos and textural relationships, significantly accelerating geological modeling and follow-up drilling targeting.
‘The addition of this capability represents a major step forward in Larvotto’s embrace of advanced, automated mineralogy.’
Larvotto Resources general manager Ron Heeks
Key exploration achievements include streamlined core logging, smarter and more focused analysis range selection, and the creation of a fully searchable digital mineralogical library for the entire Hillgrove ore system.
But the technology’s reach extends far beyond discovery. Hillgrove’s metallurgists already use ECORE data on grain size, mineral compositions and release properties to fine-tune grinding circuits, optimize flotation and recovery parameters, and troubleshoot process plant performance.
The same scans will also inform upcoming pre-feasibility testing studies and even evaluate the reprocessing potential of the project’s historic waste and landfills.
Larvotto Resources managing director Ron Heeks said:: “Integrating ECORE into our workflows provides Larvotto with a powerful new capability to understand the Hillgrove deposit from both a geological and metallurgical perspective. This cutting-edge technology allows us to produce high-quality mineralogical information in hours rather than weeks and significantly improves the way we do business, from exploratory drilling to processing.”
