Not long after declaring maiden commercial production, Red River Resources (ASX: RVR) announced exploration at its Liontown East deposit, part of the Thalanga zinc project in Queensland, has uncovered wide intersections grading up to 15.58% zinc equivalent, with mineralisation remaining open.
Diamond drilling at Liontown East has returned 15.58% zinc equivalent, which includes 0.4% copper, 4% lead, 8.6% zinc, 1.2 grams per tonnes gold and 60g/t silver.
The intersection comprises a higher grade 10.28m interval containing 19.2% zinc equivalent (0.5% copper, 4.9% lead, 10.6% zinc, 1.5g/t gold and 70g/t silver).
Additionally, visible mineralisation was identified in two other diamond drill holes, but assays were pending.
Red River has mobilised a reverse circulation rig to Liontown East to explore the deposit’s up dip potential. This rig has completed two holes and the company claims about 15m of massive and semi massive sulphide mineralisation has been observed.
Assays published in mid-January for Liontown East revealed up to 23.9% zinc equivalent in a 4.8m intercept.
Other notable assays were 10.7m grading 8.6% zinc equivalent, which included a 4.8m interval with 10.5% zinc equivalent.
In late January, Red River completed its first shipment of zinc concentrate from its Thalanga mine as part of the company’s offtake arrangement with Trafigura.
A maiden copper concentrate delivery was also made to Glencore International, with Glencore taking delivery at the Thalanga mine gate.
Thalanga achieved commercial production in the December quarter after producing 67,000 tonnes from the West 45 deposit with ore grading 5.7% zinc, 0.3% copper and 2.5% lead.
As processing ramped up to the operational 325,000tpa target, 79000t of ore was milled during the quarter to produce 6,398 dry tonnes of zinc concentrate, 2,859 dry tonnes of lead concentrate and 555 dry tonnes of coper concentrate.
The West 45 deposit has a resource estimate of 0.6 million tonnes grading 15.4% zinc equivalent and a reserve of 0.6mt grading 11.6% zinc equivalent.
Meanwhile, the Far West deposit hosts a reserve of 1.5mt grading 12% zinc equivalent.
Mining is expected to continue at West 45, while starting at Far West, then Waterloo deposits in stages.
Red River’s share price had lifted more than 4% to sit at A$0.385 in late afternoon trade.
