Red River Resources boosts Hillgrove resource to more than one million gold ounces and 90,000 tonnes of antimony

Red River Resources Limited (ASX:RVR) has upgraded the mineral resource estimate for its Hillgrove Gold Project in northern NSW, which now contains more than one million ounces of gold and 90,000 tonnes of antimony. The revitalised resource increases the project’s contained gold by 54%, while Hillgrove’s antimony resource jumped 20% on the previous estimate. Ultimately, a new mineral resource, established at the Eleanora and Garibaldi lode within one of the Hillgrove Mineral Field’s six key hubs led to the mineral resource update. The new resource estimate also positions Hillgrove as Australia’s largest antimony resource, while it’s also now considered one of the top 10 antimony resources in the world. “Significant growth potential” “It’s a fantastic milestone to grow our Hillgrove resource to more than one million ounces of gold and 90,000 tonnes of antimony, making Hillgrove the ninth-largest antimony resource in the world, in the best location. “Hillgrove has significant growth potential both in resources and scale. All deposits remain open and we have defined a large number of targets and control the whole mineral field so we are confident that we can continue to build the scale of the Hillgrove project. "Drilling has also shown there is halo mineralisation that has not previously been identified and pursued. “Building the scale of the Hillgrove project is considered to be a significant value-creating opportunity for our shareholders and I’m looking forward to seeing the results of our future exploration and drilling over the coming quarters.” Updated Eleanor/Garibaldi resource Hillgrove’s JORC 2012-compliant estimate now stands at 7.23 million tonnes of resource, grading 4.5 g/t gold and 1.2% antimony or 6.2 g/t gold equivalent for 1.04 million gold ounces and 90,000 tonnes of antimony. It follows the establishment of a 2.4-million-tonne JORC 2012 mineral resource at a mineralised lode within the project’s Eleanora/Garibaldi mining hub, which is now said to contain 362,000 gold ounces and 15,000 tonnes of antimony. Eleanora/Garibaldi is the second-largest gold production centre in the Hillgrove Mineral Field. It’s been mined since 1880, with modern mining undertaken between 1969 and 200. Within this hub lies the Eleanora and Garibaldi Lode System, where, to date, Red River Resources has completed 24 diamond drill holes over 1.2 kilometres of strike. Ultimately, these holes confirm and validate previously undertaken sampling programs and allow Red River the hub’s mineral resources to a JORC 2012 reporting standard. Gold and antimony resources Overall, Red River believes the mineral resource increase to more than one million ounces of gold demonstrates the Hillgrove Gold Project’s high potential. It follows the ASX-lister’s recent exploration campaigns, which identified wider halo mineralised zones surrounding the project’s high-grade lodes and updated the Eleanora and Garibaldi JORC 2004 resource to JORC 2012 compliance. The antimony result also cements Hillgrove’s status as a globally significant antimony resource. To date, Hillgrove has produced more than 730,000 ounces of gold (in bullion and concentrates), more than 50,000 tonnes of antimony (as metal and in concentrates) and material amounts of by-product tungsten (in concentrates). Is there more to come? Red River is investigating alternate mining and processing scenarios, linked to increased tonnages, to maximise the value of the Hillgrove resource — action which could lead to a new project strategy. Accordingly, RVR believes the lack of drilling and sampling at Hillgrove over the past 50 years presents a key opportunity to add additional resources through future drilling campaigns. Previous operations have focussed on high-grade mineralisation, so significant lower-grade portions and halo mineralisation has largely been discounted due to small-scale operations and lower gold prices. As a result, the resources are not well defined at lower cut-off grades due to a lack of drilling and sampling, providing significant potential upside.