Red River Resources well-funded to progress further development at Thalanga and Hillgrove operations

Red River Resources Ltd (ASX:RVR) (FRA:R1R) generated $26 million in revenue during the March quarter with $25.4 million from base metal concentrate sales at the Thalanga Project in Queensland and $600,000 from the new Hillgrove Gold Mine in New South Wales and is well-funded for further development at both. The company has started processing data received from a microgravity survey at Thalanga, where Red River is targeting Thalanga-style volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VMS) deposits along the southern side of the Thalanga Range to the west of the Thalanga mine. On completion of this process, the company will review the data generated in conjunction with previous exploration data (IP and surface geochemistry) to determine priority targets for follow-up drilling. Red River is also seeking to enhance the base metals project's gold bounty through exploration and development at and around the operations. Thalanga development During the quarter, Red River continued mine design and scheduling activities at the Liontown project, with the focus being on a combined open pit and underground development with a conceptual mine life of more than 10 years. Liontown, a high-grade, gold-rich polymetallic deposit, is set to be Red River’s third deposit developed for mining at Thalanga. The project has a mineral resource of 4.1 million tonnes at 0.6% copper, 1.9% lead, 5.9% zinc, 1.1 g/t gold and 29 g/t silver and is around 32 kilometres in a direct line from Red River’s Thalanga operations and 107 kilometres by road. Operations update Thalanga Operations mined 87,000 tonnes at 1.2% copper, 1.4% lead, 4.3% zinc, 0.2 g/t gold and 43 g/t silver during the quarter and processed 95,000 tonnes of ore grading 1.1% copper, 1.7% lead, 4.4% zinc, 0.2 g/t gold and 49 g/t silver. Zinc concentrate production decreased 6% from quarter two, with 6,959 DMT produced while zinc recovery to zinc concentrate averaged 89.1% for the period and a high-quality zinc concentrate grading 53.4% zinc was produced. Lead concentrate production decreased 16% from quarter two, with 1,613 DMT lead concentrate produced while lead recovery to lead concentrate was 69.2%, with an average concentrate grade of 67.1% lead, 5.1 g/t gold and 1,541 g/t silver produced during the period. Copper concentrate production was down 14% from quarter two, with 3,068 DMT of copper concentrate produced. Copper recovery to copper concentrate averaged 74.5% for the period, with an average copper concentrate grade of 25.7% copper, 1.7 g/t gold and 318 g/t silver. Red River sold 6,700 DMT of zinc concentrate, 1,484 DMT of lead concentrate and 3,025 DMT of copper concentrate during the quarter. Base metal concentrates were delivered under long-term offtake agreements to Trafigura (zinc and lead concentrate) and Glencore (copper concentrate). Hillgrove development At Hillgrove in northern NSW, Red River ramped up gold production during the quarter after acquiring the project in 2019 and commencing gold production in December 2020. Bakers Creek Stockpile mining and trucking activities started, and the first ore was delivered to Hillgrove ROM Pad on December 23, 2020.  First ore was processed through the Hillgrove Mill on December 29, 2020. During the quarter, Matt Breen commenced as general manager at Hillgrove operations. Breen is a highly experienced mining engineer with more than 20 years’ experience in operations and development projects in Australia and Mongolia, with a proven track record in underground mining operations, drill and blast optimisation, business improvement and implementation of best practise mine production processes. Hillgrove gold concentrate leaching  At Hillgrove, gravity gold concentrate leaching through the Acacia gold reactor to produce gold doré started at the end of February 2021. Around 260 ounces of gold (contained in doré) was sold during the quarter and a total of 667 ounces of gold was produced into doré and flotation concentrates. The flotation concentrate produced contains a higher-than-expected proportion of refractory gold. Red River will begin selling the flotation concentrate in quarter four of 2021 as selling the concentrate will generate a greater return than leaching the concentrate, which will only recover the leachable gold in concentrate, on-site to produce gold doré.