Okay, its got my interest. I don't know how this has slipped under my radar for as long as it has considering all of Lodes project areas are areas I am personally familiar with.
I have been keeping an eye out watching for someone to take the EL over the Magwood group of deposits for some time and last I checked it was under application from a WA Based private company called Bullseye Gold, following being ungraciously dumped from SUMs project portfolio earlier in the year. Very pleased to see a public company take it on.
As you can see here and also as stated in this announcement it is located very close to Hillgrove, which is currently going through the restart process under Larvotto, who are planning on being up and going again by early 2026. From the Magwood mine itself to Hillgrove by road - about 80kms. Decent road too. Would make logistical sense to send material there for processing, were LDR to go mining here.
I used to have pages and pages of DD I wrote out by hand in an exercise book but I lost that in the 2022 East Coast floods, but one figure I recall is that the Magwood mine itself produced 3100t~ of ore over its 30 odd year run - from the 40s to the 70s - and not continuously. There were multiple stops and starts during that period. Also largely without modern mining equipment. There is no JORC or defined/indicated resource here as it has never been drilled, the mine just followed the orebodies downwards.
Magwood Mine itself is unique in the respect that it was always primarily an Antimony mine. Antimony is a mongrel of a metal for most Metallurgists as it complicates processing...Mostly you see it as a byproduct of Gold or Silver where it exists alongside the target commodity. Magwood was extremely high grade material and for the most part, just Stibnite, the most common native Sulfide of Antimony. I do believe from historic reports that lead started to be encountered alongside the Stibnite at the lower depths - that's interesting and worth thinking about. I would suggest to all to give that some thought and do some reading on the general geology of Hillgrove - you'll see what I am getting at. Its not located within the same Geological block, per se, but the blocks are the same age (Late Carboniferous/Early Permian), both mines are near contact points between blocks/major faults and only a miniscule straight line distance apart.
Technology has come a long way in the time since last mining was done and I do honestly feel that this could really have some upside to it - Magwood specifically. The
absolute best recommendation I can make to anyone who is serious about an investment here is to go and buy a copy of the Dorrigo-Coffs Harbour Metalurgical Map Survey notes, published by the Department of Mineral Resources.
Link:
https://search.geoscience.nsw.gov.au/product/1552/944752Or if you don't want a hardcopy you can read a PDF of it for free.
It doesn't go into a lot of detail about Magwood specifically but it gives an incredible insight into the overall geology of the entire district, and the deposits within.
There is a lot of Antimony around this area.I will have to do some DD on LDR as a company but I think if the management check out I will be taking a position here for sure. I have done a lot of DD on the mineralogy of this area over the last 4-5 years. Don't take what I say as gospel of course - I am not a professional geologist, just an amateur. I was bullish on Antimony due to the development of Molten Salt reflow batteries as grid-level battery storage devices originally, and that is what drove my research into this location in particular being semi-local to me. The situation has changed now that China has introduced the export restrictions - they come into effect in 5 days. There goes 50% of global export. There is no substitute for Antimony and it is a crucial material for military applications - and it certainly looks like war is coming soon. The USA is completely dependent on imported material, with no current mines of their own. Price of Antimony is only going to keep going up as noone with friendly relations to the west is coming in with supply to fill the gap. I honestly believe if these guys hit Magwood and prove up a resource, given the proximity to Hillgrove, which at this point in time is the only place in Australia with plant in place for dedicated Antimony processing, funding etc for mining will come to LDR and they wont even have to go looking.
GL all. AIMO only, DYOR etc etc...
OP.