EVR's maiden Los Lirios target puts scale on antimony in tight market

EV Resources (ASX: EVR) published a maiden exploration target for its Los Lirios antimony project in Mexico on Tuesday, putting a quantified range on what the company calls one of North America's best-positioned antimony deposits. The target implies 70,000 to 166,000 tonnes of contained antimony across the Lirios zone, split into Lirios 1 and 2, and the Cofradia breccia, within a resource envelope of 1.8 million to 5 million tonnes.

The target was built from geological interpretation drawing on channel sampling and a geophysical survey, with 15 drill holes testing the extent and continuity of a carbonate replacement deposit (CRD) unit. Managing director Mike Brown called the CRD unit a “very strong foundation” and a “significant achievement”, noting the first-pass drilling targeted steep feeder structures but instead revealed a stratabound unit that is continuous, laterally extensive and shallow.

Phase 2 drilling will target the high-grade intersections where those feeder structures meet the CRD host. The company aims to deliver a maiden JORC resource estimate before year end. Brown said the plan uses short, low-cost holes and offers a capital-efficient path to resource definition.

The Cofradia zone returned channel-sample assays from an historical adit of 2.2 metres at 5.66 per cent antimony. Mineralisation in the Lirios and Cofradia zones is characterised by cervantite and stibnite, with grades correlating to the proportion of each mineral present.

China imposed antimony export controls in 2024, tightening Western access to the critical mineral. Los Lirios is one of few advanced-stage antimony projects in North America. Brown said the project is emerging at “exactly the right time”.

Phase 2 drilling is expected to start in the coming months, with a maiden resource estimate targeted before year end.