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Red Hill Minerals has reported a 295,000-ounce increase in the gold resource covered by its Sandstone royalty in Western Australia, strengthening its exposure to Brightstar Resources’ expanding gold project.
The company’s September quarterly report confirmed that the mineral resource subject to its two per cent gross revenue royalty has increased to approximately 1.34 million ounces of gold, comprising 35.2 million tonnes grading 1.3 grams per tonne (g/t).
The increase follows a series of resource upgrades by Brightstar, which lifted the broader Sandstone project’s mineral resource to 3.6 million ounces during the quarter.
Brightstar nearly doubled the resource at Two Mile Hill-Shillington in September to 1.45 million ounces, strengthening its ambitions for a large-scale underground operation.
The company has since secured $82 million in placement commitments, including a $30 million investment from Genesis Minerals, to accelerate exploration and development at Sandstone.
Red Hill’s royalty also covers the Bull Oak deposit, where Brightstar recently returned high-grade drilling results including 167m at 2.1g/t gold and 7m at 119g/t gold.
While further resource growth could increase Red Hill’s long-term royalty exposure, the miner said that Sandstone remains a development-stage project, with Brightstar targeting completion of a pre-feasibility study and maiden ore reserve during the December quarter.
Meanwhile, Red Hill recorded approximately $6 million in royalty revenue from Mineral Resources’ (MinRes) Onslow Iron project during the September quarter.
The revenue was generated through Red Hill’s 0.75 per cent free-on-board royalty, with approximately 8.54 million dry metric tonnes shipped from the relevant royalty area.
MinRes reported total Onslow Iron shipments of 9.2 million wet metric tonnes for the quarter, representing an annualised shipping rate of 36.9 million tonnes and exceeding the operation’s nameplate capacity.
The strong operating performance followed record quarterly crushing and haulage volumes, alongside the highest monthly exports on record in September.
Red Hill finished the quarter with $58.7 million in cash after receiving $7.7 million in royalty payments and paying a $6.9 million fully franked dividend.
Exploration also progressed across the company’s Curnamona joint venture in South Australia and New South Wales.
At Anabama, drilling intersected additional copper mineralisation, including 7m at 0.7 per cent copper from 628m, within a previously unrecognised geological setting approximately 400m below historical drilling.
The results follow earlier exploration at Anabama, where Red Hill commenced drilling in July to investigate a prospective off-hole electromagnetic conductor.
Meanwhile, the company continued its 1700m drilling campaign at Broken Hill, targeting potential copper-gold mineralisation at Furiosa and lead-zinc-silver mineralisation at Dementus.
Further drilling and geophysical results are expected to guide Red Hill’s next exploration priorities, while royalty interests at Onslow Iron and Sandstone remain important components of its broader portfolio.
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