Bakers Creek Waste Dump. Image: Red River Resources
Red River Resources plans to start producing from the Hillgrove project in New South Wales this year to take advantage of high gold prices.
The decision was made on the back of metallurgical testwork carried out by engineering consultant Consep and metallurgical development specialist Core Resources, which demonstrated the viability of treating Bakers Creek waste dump material.
This will go through the existing Hillgrove Mill, with total gold recovery to saleable gold doré produced on site estimated to be 75–80 per cent.
The results from Hillgrove show that Red River can restart gold production from existing onsite material, according to managing director Mel Palancian.
“Having only acquired Hillgrove in August 2019, we are pleased that results to date have validated our strategy to expand our operations and we are progressing our plans to restart Hillgrove production before the end of 2020,” Palancian said.
Work has commenced on flowsheet, with more progress update to come from Red River.
The flowsheet will focus on maximising the gold recovery using existing plant and infrastructure on-site.
Red River plans to load and truck material from Bakers Creek Waste Dump 4.2 kilometres to the Hillgrove Mill, where it will be crushed and ground.
The Bakers Creek Waste Dump was created during the mining of the Bakers Creek mine. The mine produced 303,900 ounces of gold from 175,980 tonnes of ore at around 49 grams per tonne of gold during operation from 1877 to 1921.
Red River plans to install a new gravity gold concentrator in the grinding circuit to produce a gravity gold concentrate. It will also treat the remaining material produced from the grinding circuit through the existing flotation circuit to produce a flotation concentrate.
The company will then leach the gravity and flotation gold concentrate on-site using cyanide to produce saleable gold doré.
