Red River marks Hillgrove restart with first gold pour

The bar weighed 0.97 kilograms and graded 83 per cent gold and 18 per cent silver.

Red River stated that plant production was ramping up, with around 18,000 tonnes of ore processed from the Bakers Creek stockpile to date.

The stockpile holds 225,000 tonnes of gold at 2.5 grams per tonne.

Red River managing director Mel Palancian said the start of gold production at Hillgrove represented a material step in the company’s strategy to build a multi-asset operating business focussed on base and precious metals.

“Red River completed the Hillgrove gold mine acquisition in August 2019 for $4 million in (Red River) shares, and we decided that the best way to bring this project back into production through treating material from the Bakers Creek stockpile before resuming underground operations, with methodical permitting, refurbishment and upgrade activities to execute our strategy,” Palancian said.

“I look forward to updating the market as we increase gold production from the Bakers Creek stockpile in stage one before we move to the full restart of (underground) production in stage two, producing gold, gold concentrate and gold-antimony concentrate.”

Red River restarted the Hillgrove operation in December last year. It has now around 800-1000 ounces of gold in the circuit.

Red River also installed a Consep Acacia leach reactor at Hillgrove to maximise gold recovery.

The company last year worked with Consep to carry out metallurgical testwork that led to the start of mining at Hillgrove.

Red River plans to start underground mining operations at Hillgrove this year.