- Over the December quarter, Red River Resources (RVR) resolved royalty issues and made plans to restart an underground mine at the Hillgrove project in NSW
- The company settled a royalty dispute with Thalanga Copper Mines, paying nearly $20 million in royalties
- Another big milestone for the quarter was the board approval to restart the Syndicate underground mine, with a restart date to be announced once mining contracts are completed
- Net revenue for the quarter was $25.5 million and RedRiver finished the period with $13.2 million cash
- On the market today, Red River is down 1.25 per cent and trading at 19.8 cents per share
Red River Resources (RVR) has further progressed its Australian projects during the December quarter.
The company owns the Thalanga Operations and Herberton Projects in Queensland and the Hillgrove Operation in New South Wales.
Net revenue for the quarter was $25.5 million, with $23.7 million from Thalanga and $1.8 million from Hillgrove.
Cash at the end of the quarter was $13.2 million, a decrease of $11 million compared to the previous quarter.
Notably, Red River pumped $4.9 million into mine development, project capital and exploration activities.
The company also received confirmation from the ASX that its classification has changed from a ‘mining exploration entity’ to a ‘mining production entity’. This means RVR is no longer required to lodge Appendix 5B quarterly cashflow report to the ASX.
Over the quarter, the company resolved a royalty dispute with Thalanga Copper Mines (TCM), a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources. These proceedings began in 2019 and was for Red River’s subsidiary, Cromarty Resources, to pay royalties to TCM at Thalanga in northern Queensland, a liability it inherited when it purchased the project in 2014.
Red River has now paid nearly $20 million to TCM to settle the dispute.
Thalanga
At the Thalanga Operations, quarterly production saw 4697 dry metric tonnes (DMT) of zinc concentrate production, 1100 DMT and copper concentrate of 1996 DMT.
Changes to the project’s ground control management plan required additional ground support to be installed in all existing and future ore drives.
This created a significant workload which impacted access to current stoping fronts and reduced Thalanga’s production in October and November along with labour shortages due to COVID-19.
Additional ground support is progressively installing on an ongoing basis and production improved in December and is expected to keep improving in this current quarter.
Hillgrove
Over in NSW at the Hillgrove operations, drilling continues with eight diamond drill holes for 1667 metres at the Sunlight, Eleanora Garibaldi and Freehold prospects.
During the period, Red River’s board approved the underground mining restart of the Syndicate mineral resource.
Discussions with mining contractors are ongoing and once finished, a restarting date of the mine will be announced.
Herberton Silver-Indium Project
Red River has been continuing to work towards a drilling program for the Herberton Project in northern Queensland throughout the quarter.
Notably, this project contains the highest-grade known indium deposits in Australia — Isabel and West Orient.
Drilling is expected to commenced in the first half of 2022.
On the market today, Red River was down 1.25 per cent and is trading at 19.8 cents per share at 12:33 pm AEDT.