Red River Resources Limited (ASX:RVR) has declared commercial production at Thalanga Zinc Operations in central Queensland.
The first shipment of zinc concentrate is expected this month and sales of copper concentrate have started.
Provisional payment has also been received for 2,694 wet metric tonnes of lead concentrate.
Shares reached a 12 month high of $0.365 intra day, up 14% on Monday’s close of $0.32.
READ: Red River Resources' shares targeted to double according to Perth broker
The company restarted zinc concentrate production at Thalanga in September 2017 and produced 6,398 dry metric tonnes (dmt) during the December quarter.
There were also 2,859 dmt of lead concentrate and 555 dmt of copper concentrate produced.
Mining at West 45
Red River is mining the West 45 underground deposit and 67,000 tonnes of ore was mined during the quarter at an average grade of 0.3% copper, 2.5% lead and 5.7% zinc.
There were 79,000 tonnes of ore milled at the Thalanga operations grading 0.5% copper, 3.2% lead and 6.2% zinc.
Process throughput is being maintained at an annual rate of 320,000 tonnes.
Throughput has exceeded the restart study target rate of 325,000 tonnes for a number of periods.
Potential to increase throughput
This demonstrates the potential to increase the plant throughput at no extra capital cost.
The operations generated cash of A$6.8 million for the quarter and the company’s cash balance increased by A$7.6 million to A$23.2 million.
Red River’s site team is focused on ramping up zinc and lead concentrate grades and recoveries.
READ: Red River Resources drills high grade zinc at Thalanga project
An optimised life of mine plan, incorporating extended mine life and increased mill throughput, is due for release in the first quarter of 2018.
Production at the Far West mine is expected by the end of 2018 and planning is underway for the Waterloo mine.