PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Red River Resources has reported lower production from its Thalanga operation in Queensland, during the three months to December.

The miner on Friday reported that zinc concentrate production had reached 4 697 t during the December quarter, while lead concentrate production reached 1 100 t, and copper concentrate production reached 1 996 t.

This was compared with the 7 539 t of zinc concentrate, 1 982 t of lead concentrate and 4 411 t of copper concentrate in the previous quarter.

Red River told shareholders that changes to Thalanga’s ground control management plan had required additional ground support to be installed retrospectively in all existing and future ore drives, which created a significant workload, impacting access to current stoping fronts and reducing production in October and November. This was also accompanied by labour shortages owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The miner noted that the mine was progressively installing the additional ground support on an ongoing basis, and production improved in the month of December.

During the quarter under review, 4 929 t of zinc concentrate, 1 137 t of lead concentrate and 2 022 t of copper concentrate were sold under long-term offtake agreements. The Thalanga operation generated A$23.7-million in net revenue during the quarter, with the Hillgrove gold mine, in New South Wales, contributing a further A$1.8-million.

Red River is continuing to plan a restart of the underground mining operations at Hillgrove.

The company acquired the project in 2019 and exhausted the Bakers Creek stockpile at the end of the first quarter of the 2022 financial year. It will now focus on recovering the remaining gold within the processing circuit during the second quarter of the 2022 financial year.

About 494 oz of contained gold in dore were sold during the quarter, and 284 oz of contained gold in concentrate were produced at Hillgrove during the quarter, with total gold sold from the Bakers Creek stockpile amounting to just over 3 800 oz.

Red River in November approved the restart of underground mining at Hillgrove, and along with recovering the gold in the processing circuit, the Hillgrove team is now focused on preparing the process plant to produce antimony along with gold from syndicate material.

Discussions with mining contractors are ongoing, as well as offtake discussions for the antimony.