West 45 reached an all-time high of 97,000 tonnes of ore mined, while the new Far West underground chipped in a modest 9000t of development ore, with 109,000t processed through the Thalanga mill.

 

The result was a 134% surge in copper to 1694t, a 25% leap in lead production to 3763t and a 16% jump in zinc concentrate output to 8952t.

 

Red River appears to have successfully solved the metallurgical issues that prompted last year's copper crisis.

 

The company recovered a record 7695t of zinc, 3007t of lead and 725t of copper from its West 45 mine in the December quarter. It smashed that record in the March quarter and is hopeful of setting a new record for the current quarter. 

 

For the year to date, the miner has produced 302,000t averaging 0.4% copper, 2.6% lead, 5% zinc, 0.2 grams per tonne gold and 44gpt silver for a zinc equivalent grade of 9.9%.

 

Ultimately it hopes to develop four concurrent mining operations, with plans to develop Waterloo being studied to utilise spare capacity at the 600,000tpa plant. 

 

Red River secured the mothballed project in 2014 and started operations in late 2017. 

 

Shares in the junior rose 5.9% in morning trade to hit A18c, valuing the miner at $88 million, although its shares have fallen from around 29c one year ago.