Both offtake agreements will now run for a further three years from January 2021 and will be trucked 200 kilometres to the Port of Townsville.

Trafigura will also make a $US15 million ($20.5 million) loan facility available for Red River’s general working capital, corporate and other purposes.

Trafigura is one of the largest physical commodity trading groups globally and transports, stores and holds a number of raw materials.

The Thalanga operation in northern Queensland has been producing copper, lead and zinc concentrate since September 2017.

Red River uses a 650,000 tonne per annum mill to process the resources at Thalanga.

The company is working on an advanced regional exploration program to unlock Thalanga’s future ore sources.

In October, zinc prices rose above $US1.13 per pound for the first time since COVID-19 hit.

New Century Resources previously noted that spot treatment charges had dropped to $US110 per tonne in the same month.

The price of zinc on the London Metal Exchange is listed at $US2756 per tonne at the time of writing.