Price booms for little-known critical mineral needed for solar panels - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

AI desk brief

Australia’s Hillgrove mine is restarting after more than a decade idle as a surge in antimony prices and tighter global supply make the project viable. Larvotto Resources says antimony has more than doubled since it bought the site in 2023 to $US26,300/t, and the operation is expected to supply about 5,000t a year to the world market.

The mine is also slated to produce more than 40,000oz of gold annually, making the reopening marginally relevant to the gold supply picture. Management says the project would rank as the seventh-largest antimony supplier globally, but an industry expert warned the commodity is illiquid and the economics will remain highly dependent on changing international market conditions.