Red River Resources Limited (ASX:RVR) has reported a transformative December 2020 quarter with the production finally commencing at its Hillgrove Gold Mine in New South Wales. The first ore through the plant was processed on 29 December 2020, and now the Company plans to ramp up production activities at Hillgrove during Q3 FY2021.
Hillgrove Gold Mine Commences Production
Hillgrove Gold Mine, which was acquired by the Company last year, holds a JORC mineral resource of 5 million tonnes with an average grade of 4.3 grams per tonne of gold, containing 692,000 ounces, and 1.5 per cent of antimony, containing 75,000 tonnes.
Image Source: © Kalkine Group 2020
The Mine contains more than 200 known gold deposits; however, the project mineral resource estimation only includes resources from the Blacklode & Sunlight, Brackin’s Spur, Clark’s Gully, and few more other stockpiles.
As mentioned above, Red River processed the first ore on 29 December 2020, which was mined at the Bakers Creek stockpile.
Thalanga Operation Remains Strong
RVR managed to produce 3,564 tonnes of high-quality copper concentrate, 7.430 tonnes of high-quality zinc concentrate, and 1,914 tonnes of high-quality lead concentrate, thanks to a strong production quarter at the Thalanga Operation.
Apart from a slight decline in the copper production against the previous reporting period or Q1 FY2021, all base metals remained in line with the previous quarter.
Quarterly Concentrate Production (Source: Company’s Report Dated 12 January 2020)
For the December 2020 quarter, Thalanga Operations ore mined 92kt @ 10.2 per cent of zinc equivalent, which remained slightly lower as compared to the previous quarter; however, production remained higher against the same period.
Likewise, the Thalanga Operations ore processed during the quarter stood at 112kt @ 10.3 per cent of zinc equivalent which also remained slightly lower as compared to the previous quarter.
Bonanza-Grade at Hillgrove
On further drilling its Eleanora Lode at the prospect through its drilling program, Red River had received some bonanza-grades for gold with drill hole identified as ELG147 intersecting 1.00 m @ 57.2 g/t of gold and 1.6 per cent of antimony.
Moreover, the overall drilling results announced by the Company in the recent past have remained decent with gold intersections ranging from 8.6 g/t to 4.9 g/t.
Also, once the Company completes the ELG151, it intends to commence a four-hole drill rig program at Garabaldi Lode in order to support the conversion of JORC 2004 mineral resource to JORC 2012. Meanwhile, a 23-hole 4,225m drilling program is currently underway at Hillgrove.
