Red River Resources (ASX:RVR) has poured the first bar of gold from its Hillgrove mine in New South Wales, adding to its existing base metal concentrate production.
The production of gold also marks the first time in more than 20 years that gold has been produced from the Hillgrove project.
About 18,000t of ore from the Bakers Creek Stockpile has been mined and processed through the Hillgrove plant with the company estimating that there are about 800oz to 1,000oz of gold in the circuit.
Red River will focus on ramping up gold production from Bakers Creek as the first stage of its project before moving to the full restart of underground production in the second stage.
This will produce gold, gold in concentrate and gold-antimony concentrate.
Gold production adds to its existing production of base metal concentrate at the Thalanga Operations in Queensland.
In the December 2020 quarter, the company produced 3,564 dry metric tonnes (DMT) of copper concentrate, 7,430DMT of zinc concentrate and 1,914DMT of lead concentrate.
Meanwhile, Black Cat Syndicate (ASX:BC8) has signed an exclusive option to acquire a 1.5 million tonne per annum milling facility for its Kal East gold project near Kalgoorlie, WA, that could drastically cut the amount of time required to enter production.
The company says the 1.5 million tonne per annum milling facility is ideal for its planned processing plant with enough grinding capacity for potential future expansion.
The facility, which Black Cat is acquiring for $1.41m if the option is exercised, was operated for less than five years and has been well maintained and in excellent condition.
“We have engaged a team of experts to assist with detailed due diligence and to estimate removal and relocation costs,” managing director Gareth Solly said.
“During the March 2021 quarter we will also estimate the impact this milling facility has on our construction schedule and build up cost estimates for both the initial facility as well as the potential expansion case.
“Acquiring this facility would be a major milestone for Black Cat as it immediately secures the supply of approximately 60% of the equipment required to construct our planned processing facility.”
Kal East has a combined resource of 12.3Mt grading 2.3 grams per tonne (g/t) for 905,000oz of contained gold.
Black Cat plans to construct a central processing facility for the project during 2021 near the Imperial/Majestic deposits.
This is intended to be a traditional carbon-in-leach gold plant, which is ideally suited to both the company’s resources and third party free milling ores located east of Kalgoorlie.