Red River Resources has been granted two new polymetallic projects hosting the highest-grade known indium deposits in Australia.

It comes as the company was this week announced as the recipient of a $190,000 Collaborative Exploration Initiative grant for work focused on indium in the Herberton region.

Geoscience Australia and strategic partners of Australia including the European Union, France, Japan, Korea, India and the United Kingdom have defined indium as a critical mineral.

It is a critical element in CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-selenide) thin film solar cells.

The Isabel project contains the Isabel polymetallic massive sulphide zinc-lead-copper-silver-indium deposit (average indium grade of 370 g/t) and the Isabel Extended exploration target.

The Orient project contains the West Orient zinc-lead-silver indium deposit (average indium grade of 190 g/t) and the East Orient exploration target.

The projects are located near Herberton and Irvinebank in Northern Queensland, about 500km by sealed road from Red River’s Thalanga operation.

Red River said the Isabel and Orient deposits have potential to provide additional feed to Thalanga operations or be developed as stand-alone operations.

It is collating and modelling the historical data for the Isabel and Orient projects.

Red River has undertaken an initial site visit to the Isabel and Orient projects and has commenced exploration activity.