Red River Resources Limited (ASX:RVR) (FRA:R1R) is focused on building an Australian multi asset mining business, recently restarting the Hillgrove Gold mine in New South Wales and reporting a strong performance from its Thalanga Base Metal operations in Queensland.
The project has significant existing infrastructure, with a 250,000 tonnes per annum plant, capable of producing gold dore, gold and antimony-gold concentrates, as well as an antimony alkali leach and EW circuit, pressure oxidation circuit, gold cyanide leach circuit, gold room and a lined tailing storage facility with around 2 years capacity.
Hillgrove has a JORC 2012 mineral resource of 5 million tonnes at 4.3 g/t gold and 1.5% antimony (692,000 ounces gold and 75,000 tonnes antimony).
The company is well placed going forwards with its multi-mineral assets and exposure to gold, base metals and strategic metals (antimony) considering the increased focus globally on critical minerals and strategic metals.
Staged Hillgrove restart
Hillgrove is a world-class antimony deposit and the company has commenced the stage one restart at the project by processing the Bakers Creek stockpile of 225,000 tonnes at 2.5 g/t gold.
Leaching is set to commence in the near-term with production ramping up in the near-term.
Stage Two of the Hillgrove low-capital restart is underway, with underground operations set to commence in the Metz Mining Centre by the end of the year.
Metz is a modern underground mine on care and maintenance with a mineral resource of 3 million tonnes at 4.5 g/t gold and 1.4% antimony (426,000 ounces gold and 41,000 tonnes antimony).
The mine will produce gold dore, gold concentrate and antimony-gold concentrate of up to 30,000-50,000 ounces gold equivalent per annum for 5 years or so.
Multiple mining centres
There is potential for multiple mining centres at Hillgrove to increase ore production, including:
- Eleanora-Garibaldi which is close to the Hillgrove mill and system, with more than 1 kilometre strike open at depth; and
- Brackins Spur (partially developed by the previous owners) which has a mineral resource of 1.6 million tonnes at 4.5 g/t gold and 1.5% antimony (231,000 ounces).
Notably, Red River has multiple exploration targets and controls the entire Hillgrove Mineral Field which hosts 200+ known gold-antimony deposits – all of which are open at depth.
There is potential for additional mining centres at Hillgrove
Thalanga Base Metal operations
The Thalanga base metal plant produces 650,000 tonnes per annum of copper, lead and zinc concentrates with gold and silver credits.
The project has an ore reserve of: 1.2 million tonnes at 1.2% copper, 1.5% lead, 4.5% zinc, 0.2 g/t gold and 40 g/t silver (10.7% zinc equivalent), and a mineral resource of: 6.7 million tonnes at 1.0% copper, 1.9% lead, 6.7% zinc, 0.8 g/t gold and 39 g/t silver (14.0% zinc equivalent).
In Q2 FY21, Thalanga produced 3,564 DMT of copper concentrate, 7,420 DMT of zinc concentrate and 1,914 DMT of lead concentrate.
This amounted to A$32.5 million revenue, EBITDA of A$11.3 million and a C1 cash cost of US$ (0.09)/pound payable zinc.
Notably, Thalanga also has a strong exposure to gold with more than 500 square metres of tenements in the Northern Queensland gold region and the company has commenced gold exploration.
In addition, the Herberton Silver-Indium Project presents an exciting silver option for the company to explore.
Liontown the next base metal mine
The company is developing Liontown open pit/underground as its next base metal mine and expects it will have an operational life of at least 5-10 years.
The current Liontown mineral resource is 4.1 million tonnes at 0.6% copper, 1.9% lead, 5.9% zinc, 1.1 g/t gold and 29 g/t silver (12.7% zinc equivalent).
The project also holds high-grade gold with 1.1 g/t (152,000 ounces gold contained).
With Far West plus Liontown, Red River will be able to ‘fill the mill’ with the combined mineral resource for both Liontown and Far West at: 5.5 million tonnes at 0.85% copper, 2.0% lead, 6.0% zinc, 0.9 g/t gold and 37 g/t silver (13.3% zinc equivalent).
Mine design and permitting is underway at Liontown.
Herberton Silver-Indium Project
Herberton is the company’s promising high-grade polymetallic silver-indium project in Northern Queensland which contains the highest-grade known indium deposits in Australia.
The Isabel deposit has a historic mineral resource of 85,000 tonnes at 15.3% zinc, 2.8% lead, 0.7% copper, 113 g/t silver and 370 g/t indium.
The West Orient deposit has a historical mineral resource of 229,000 tonnes at 5.1% zinc, 2.9% lead, 180 g/t silver and 190 g/t indium.
Sampling at West Orient returned an average grade of 357 g/t silver, 241 g/t indium, 8.2% lead and 5.8% zinc, with peak assays of 1,730 g/t silver, 1,289 g/t indium, 39.1% lead and 32.1% zinc.
A high priority for the company is a bulk tonnage epithermal silver-lead-zinc target defined at the East Orient deposit where sampling returned an average grade of 240 g/t silver, 88 g/t indium, 5.9% lead and 0.9% zinc, with peak assays of 1,365 g/t silver, 444 g/t indium, 25.8% lead and 18.7% zinc.