Red River Resources Limited (ASX: RVR) has announced an encouraging update on Bakers Creek gold mine of its Hillgrove gold-antimony project in NSW.
The company reported that the review of sampling from historic Bakers Creek waste rock dump at Hillgrove highlights the potential for gold production.
The sampling program undertaken in September 2006 had returned a weighted average grade of 3.49 g/t Au. The sampling consisted of 24 samples taken at three depths from eight locations on the Bakers Creek Waste dump.
Red River reported that it has now commenced metallurgical sampling with test work to follow shortly.
Red River has completed the acquisition of Hillgrove and has established operations on site, including identification of value opportunities.
Hillgrove project
The Hillgrove Project is located approximately 30km from Armidale in New South Wales.
The project has a current a material high-grade Mineral Resource at Hillgrove including Mineral Resource of 2.8Mt @ 5.1 g/t Au & 1.7% Sb reported in accordance with the 2012 JORC Code; and Mineral Resource of 3.9Mt @ 4.7 g/t Au & 1.3% Sb reported in accordance with the 2004 JORC Code, with potential to convert to Mineral Resources reported in accordance with the 2012 JORC Code.
The Mineral Resource is contained within 6 key hubs in the Hillgrove Mineral Field. They are Metz Centre; Bakers Creek; Brackins Spur; Eleanora/Garibaldi; Freehold; and Clarks Gully.
Bakers Creek
The Baker’s Creek is the largest gold production centre in field and the deepest workings in Hillgrove Field. The gold production at the mine had ceased because of the limited technology at the time for mining at ~500m depths and the mineralisation remains open.
Waste Rock Dump at Baker’s Creek
The Bakers Creek waste dump was created during the mining of the Bakers Creek Mine, between 1877 to 1921. The dump is approximately 105m by 70m in area and 15-20m deep.
The ore was hand sorted underground and again on surface, with the dump containing the surface hand sorting rejects.
Sampling done before 13 years
The Bakers Creek waste rock dump was sampled by Straits Resources on September 2006, using an excavator to dig test pits.
The total sample weight of 64.19kg was taken with a weighted average sample grade of 3.49 g/t Au. The sample weights ranged from 1.96 to 3.92kgs
Sampling had occurred at eight locations (point 1 to 8) for a total of 24 samples. Three sampling depths were used, including a surface depth (0-10cm), a middle depth (200-210cm) and a lower depth (500-510cm) below the surface at sample points 1 and 2.
At sample points 3 to 8, a shallower depth was used as the lower depth was unable to be reached.
Potential at waste rock dump
Straits Resources had conducted no further work on the Bakers Creek waste rock dump as the gold grades from the 2006 sampling were below the cut-off grade at the time.
Red River announced that the review of sampling from historic Bakers Creek waste rock dump at Hillgrove highlights the potential for gold production.
What’s next?
RVR announced that the metallurgical test work on the stockpiled material will commence shortly, after which the test work will follow shortly.
