Antipa Minerals is in a sweet spot, with major partners doing the heavy lifting on three of its projects in the Paterson and significant drill programs in progress at all of its projects.  

Major drilling programs are underway at Antipa Minerals’ (ASX:AZY) four precious and base metals projects in the Paterson Province in Western Australia.

Nine rigs are in operation undertaking 62,000m of diamond core, reverse circulation (RC) and aircore drilling.

That’s no small feat for a junior explorer, and not an inexpensive one either. But Antipa has an advantage – it has partnerships with none other than Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) and IGO (ASX:IGO).

Rio is Antipa’s partner on the Citadel project, which is conveniently located right next door to Rio’s infamous Winu discovery that put the Paterson on the map and ignited an exploration frenzy in the region. Winu has a resource of 4.4 million oz of gold, 1.8 million tonnes of copper and 35 million oz of silver.

Rio is spending a bigger budget than previously expected – expanded to $24.5m from $13.8m – on the Citadel project this year.

Then there’s Antipa’s partnership with Newcrest, one of the world’s largest gold producers and the biggest on the ASX, over the Wilki project that surrounds Newcrest’s successful Telfer operation, which hosts 32 million oz of gold and 1 million tonnes of copper.

The Wilki project is also a stone’s throw from another tier one operation – London-listed Greatland Gold’s Havieron project hosting 3.4 million oz of gold and 160,000 tonnes of copper.

Newcrest has agreed to spend $60m on exploration to earn a 75% interest in the project.

The final partnership with IGO covers Antipa’s Paterson project, which spans 1,550sqkm within 23km of Telfer and 8km of Winu. IGO is working towards a 70% stake in the project by spending $30m and free carrying Antipa through to the completion of a feasibility study.

Antipa also has wholly owned ground in the region known as the Minyari Dome project, where it is in the process of upgrading the resource.

This highly prospective portfolio of projects and lucrative partnerships would have Antipa on the radar of the majors and investors.

Getting down to business

At Minyari, Antipa is doing 21,000m of RC and diamond core drilling including resource definition and extension work.

At Citadel, up to 23,000m of RC and diamond drilling is being undertaken targeting potential development opportunities and new greenfield discoveries.

Newcrest is drilling 5,000m to test multiple greenfield targets at the Wilki project. The RC program also includes some testing of gold-copper extension targets at the Chicken Ranch and Tim’s Dome, which both sit within 15km of Telfer.

Finally, IGO is in the process of completing up to 13,000m of aircore and diamond drilling to test greenfield targets 8km north along strike from Winu and follow-up drilling of the Reaper-Poblano-Serrano and Grey prospects.

Outside of drilling, Antipa and its JV partners are undertaking geophysical and geochemical (soil sampling) surveys.

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Antipa Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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