Red River reveals maiden zinc resource at Liontown East

Red River Resources (ASX: RVR) has announced a maiden zinc resource estimate for the Liontown East deposit, boosting the total resource of its Thalanga project in Queensland by 27%.

The company today unveiled a mineral resource estimate (compliant to JORC 2012 code) for the Liontown East polymetallic massive sulphide deposit of 1.5 million tonnes grading at 12.2% zinc equivalent.

Due to this addition, the total mineral resource of its Thalanga project now stands at 7.1Mt with an average grade of 13% zinc equivalent.

Liontown project

The Liontown and Liontown East deposits lie within Red River’s Thalanga operation in central Queensland.

The deposits are located about 1km apart and are considered part of the same mineralised system, which remains open along strike and depth.

Liontown East was discovered during a drilling campaign in July 2016. Since then, almost 20 holes have been drilled at the deposit, which were utilised as part of its resource estimation process.

The combined mineral resource of the Liontown project (including both deposits) now stands at 3.6Mt grading at 10% zinc equivalent.

The company plans to undertake further drilling at Liontown to increase the resources as well as convert them from inferred to indicated mineral resources. It also plans to test a “gap target area”.

In addition, a scoping study is set to commence during the current second half of this year, aiming to identify the likely development pathway – either underground or an open pit operation – for the Liontown project.

Mining contract award

Red River’s Thalanga operation commenced copper, lead and zinc concentrate production in September 2017. The deposits in the current mine plan include Far West, West 45 and Waterloo.

Liontown is considered as the next project in the pipeline after the development of Waterloo.

Earlier this month, the company announced it had awarded a contract for underground mining at its Far West mine to Australian mining contractor PYBAR Mining Services for an initial seven years.

Less than a week later, Red River revealed it had also awarded PYBAR an extension to an existing contract on the West 45 underground mine.

This contract was due to expire in January 2019 but has now been extended for a maximum of two years, or until cessation of the West 45’s mine life.

Red River is currently commencing a 4500m underground diamond drilling program, hoping to further extend this mine life at West 45.

Red River shares were up 4.55% to A$0.23 on the Liontown East announcement by afternoon trade.