Special Report: Could Antipa Minerals be on the brink of the next significant discovery in Australia’s hottest mineral exploration address?

The company believes that’s a possibility based on the latest results from the exploration program it is conducting on its 100%-owned tenements in Western Australia’s Paterson Province.

In a release to the market on Friday, Antipa (ASX: AZY) said it had confirmed the presence of a new trend of mineralisation within the El Paso Corridor, a prominent geological structure that runs through its Paterson tenements.

Nine broadly spaced Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes intersected significant gold-copper +/- zinc mineralisation under shallow cover along a strike length of 1.8km.

The strike takes in three targets – Reaper (AEM32), Poblano and Serrano – identified by Antipa using aerial electromagnetics and magnetics, geophysical techniques applied to great effect in past Paterson Province discoveries.

Serrano delivered the best intercept of 4m grading 8.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 0.23% copper, 0.91 g/t silver and 673ppm bismuth from a depth of 194m.

This included a higher grade interval of 1m at 27.4 g/t gold, 0.51% copper, 2.35 g/t silver and 2,200ppm bismuth.

“It is still early days, but the signs are encouraging and it definitely warrants further investigation,” managing director Roger Mason said.

“It is possible that Reaper-Poblano-Serrano are part of the same very large scale mineral system.”

Follow-up RC drilling of the area, which lies approximately 35km north of Antipa’s Minyari-WACA deposits, is planned for late October.

At around the same time, Antipa plans to drill another two RC holes at Grey, another target generated through AEM, 8km south-west of Serrano.

These holes will follow up on recent aircore and RC drilling that returned mineralisation grading up to 0.66% copper and 1.53 g/t silver.

 

Reputation for monster deposits

The Paterson’s potential to host very large mineral systems first came to light with the discovery of the giant Telfer gold-copper-silver deposit in the early 1970s.

There have since been reminders of the region’s world-class prospectivity such as the Nifty copper find and the O’Callaghans tungsten discovery.

But those didn’t quite capture the imagination of explorers and investors in the same way that Rio Tinto’s Winu copper discovery has in the past couple of years.

Confirmation by Rio that it has found something with tier one potential at Winu, plus some eye-catching gold hits from AIM-listed Greatland Gold at its Havieron Project, has transformed the Paterson into a global exploration hotspot.

Antipa started building its land position in the region in 2011, listing on the ASX in that year with a package of tenements covering more than 1,000km2.

The company has since used its early mover advantage to accumulate more than 5,500km2 of highly prospective ground, most of which features only shallow cover, allowing for more cost-effective exploration.

Between its 100% owned ground and the Citadel farm-in project with Rio Tinto, which is only 5km from Winu, Antipa has established resources totalling 2.46 million ounces of gold and more than 150,000 tonnes of copper.

The company is continuing work to define additional greenfields targets that may produce another Winu or Havieron-style discovery

 

This story was developed in collaboration with Antipa Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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