Red River Resources Limited (ASX: RVR) has started production at its Hillgrove Gold Operation near Armidale in New South Wales.
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) plus material amounts of by-product tungsten (in concentrates).
Managing Director, Mel Palancian, said the Hillgrove Gold Project has a substantial high-grade JORC 2012 Compliant Mineral Resource of 5.0Mt @ 4.3 g/t Au & 1.5% Sb (6.4 g/t Au Eq.) (692koz gold & 75kt antimony).
The Hillgrove site includes a 250ktpa capacity processing plant, comprising a selective flotation circuit (capable of producing antimony-gold and refractory gold concentrates), an antimony leach/EW/refining & casting plant, a gold cyanide leach circuit & gold room plus a pressure oxidation circuit. The site also has a fully HDPE (high- density polyethylene) lined modern tailing storage facility, which was constructed in 2006 and has approximately two years of production storage capacity.
All of Hillgrove’s electricity requirements are sourced from a 66kva grid connected power supply from Ergon Energy with 11kva site power reticulation. Water is sourced from storage dams and underground workings.
Hillgrove has all the office facilities required for operations, including an administration office, mining operations offices, maintenance offices, workshops (heavy vehicle, light vehicle and boilermaker’s workshops), process plant offices, metallurgical laboratory building, first aid building, stores warehouse and core shed and yard.
The Hillgrove Gold Operation as a residential site, with the majority of the workforce residing in Armidale and the surrounding area.
Red River controls the known Hillgrove Mineral Field, which hosts more than 200 known gold-antimony (Au- Sb) deposits. The majority of these deposits are steeply dipping vein systems within NW to WNW striking fracture systems, where the vein systems transition to gold dominant at depth with increasing levels of free gold. All known vein systems are open at depth.