04 March 2025
ProActive Investors - Antipa Minerals prepares to drill Wilki with 100% ownership retained
By John Miller
Antipa Minerals Ltd (Antipa) has retained 100% ownership and will resume management of the Wilki Project in Western Australia’s Paterson Province after Newmont Corporation elected to withdraw from a farm-in agreement.
The company will now proceed with planned drill testing of the highly prospective Parklands target at Wilki, which is scheduled for the first half of this year.
Retaining ownership of the 1,430 square kilometres Wilki Project, which hosts a 103,500-ounce gold resource at 1.3 g/t expands Antipa’s 100%-owned land package in the productive Paterson Province to 2,540 square kilometres, excluding the 1,520 square kilometres Paterson IGO Farm-in Project.
Exciting ground
Antipa’s managing director Roger Mason said: “We are very pleased to retain full, unencumbered ownership of the Wilki Project and to now be in a position to provide clarity on our near-term exploration plans for this exciting ground connecting our Minyari Dome to Telfer and Havieron.
"Wilki contains a number of highly prospective gold targets and we are particularly excited to drill-test Parklands, a standout surface geochemical gold target, with no existing drill holes, that we have been eager to further explore.”
Location of Antipa 100%-owned Minyari Dome and Wilki projects, Antipa-IGO Paterson Farm-in, Greatland Gold’s Telfer Mine, Havieron development project and O’Callaghans deposit, Rio Tinto-Sumitomo’s Winu deposit, Rio Tinto’s Calibre-Magnum deposits and Cyprium’s Nifty Mine.
Newmont exits region
The Wilki Project farm-in was initially entered into with Newcrest Operations Ltd (now Newmont (NOL) Pty Ltd) in February 2020 and the project has benefited from A$12 million in exploration investment since 2020, funded entirely by Antipa’s partners.
Newmont sold its Telfer operation and 70% interest in the Havieron gold-copper development project, both in Paterson Province, to Greatland Gold plc in December 2024.
Antipa will receive a cash payment from Newmont of approximately A$590,000 in accordance with the withdrawal terms of the Wilki Project Farm-in Agreement.
Growth potential
There is strong potential to grow the Wilki gold resource as it has a number of targets within 20 to 30 kilometres of the Minyari Dome Project, including the large-scale, high-priority greenfield targets of Parklands and Jezabeel.
Parklands is a Telfer-sized surface geochemical gold anomaly spanning 3 by 1.5 kilometres under approximately 15 metres of cover and just 10 kilometres northeast of Greatland’s 22 million tonnes per annum Telfer gold-copper-silver processing facility.
The host rock package follows a northwest trend, the same structural corridor as nearby gold deposits such as Chicken Ranch, Turkey Farm and Triangle.
A large-scale heritage survey has been completed, paving the way for the upcoming drilling.
Jezabeel is a recently identified surface geochemical anomaly extending 3 by 1.3 kilometres under approximately 30 metres of cover and just 4 kilometres northeast of the Telfer Plant.
Limited historical drilling has highlighted basement-hosted gold mineralisation.
2025 exploration
Antipa’s Wilki 2025 exploration program is in the advanced stages of planning with up to 16,000 metres of drilling envisaged primarily focused on Parklands. This will comprise:
- 100 to 140 aircore drill holes for 6,000 to 8,000 metres;
- 20 to 30 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes for 4,000 to 6,000 metres; and
- 2 to 4 diamond core drill holes for 1,000 to 2,000 metres.
The company will also continue surface geochemical sampling, including at Jezabeel.
Antipa is confident this work will support updated mineral resource estimates and the identification of resource growth opportunities.
Well-positioned
"With Newmont’s withdrawal, we are well-positioned to confidently move forward with our calendar year 2025 exploration program,” Mason said.
Antipa’s strong financial position, with approximately A$36.5 million in cash at December 31, 2024, ensures the company has the capacity to sole fund a number of 2025 exploration programs.
"Importantly, our strong balance sheet enables us to fully fund Wilki’s budgeted exploration activities, ensuring that any future success directly benefits and fully flows through to our shareholders,” the MD added.
"We would like to thank the teams at Newcrest/Newmont for their collaboration and professionalism throughout our partnership.
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