14 November 2024
Mining.com.au - Antipa anticipates extending Minyari Dome’s production
Antipa Minerals (ASX: AZY) is looking to increase production opportunities within its Minyari Dome Gold Project in Western Australia, as it continues its phase two drilling program.
Speaking to Mining.com.au on the side lines at the Noosa Mining Investor Conference, Managing Director Roger Mason says Antipa had “very good leads” from phase one drilling, and is now looking to increase the resource to feed into a potential increase in the mining inventory.
“There might be another year or more of production that’s available if we can have some wins with phase two,” Mason tells this news service.
Antipa Minerals, which has a market capitalisation of $106.4 million, recently completed a Scoping Study, which confirms Minyari as a technically and financially viable standalone operation.
The study shows the plus10-year, 3 million tonne per annum operation will have a post-tax net present value of $598 million and an internal rate of return of 46% at an assumed gold price of $3,000 per ounce.
Antipa is continuing longer lead technical studies, including environmental programs, sample collections for the potential of Prefeasibility Study (PFS) metallurgical testing.
“We’re keeping those longer lead items ticking along with phase two,” Mason says.
Mason adds “the other string to the bow, which doesn’t get anywhere near the air time, is that the province throws up very significant and world-class copper ore bodies as well”.
Drilling at Minyari Dome comprises 11,000m, and aims to be finished in the first half of December. Mason says drilling will resume around March 2025.
He adds that in 2025, the company will make a decision on a PFS for the Minyari Dome Project.
“PFS and exploration or just exploration, it does not matter. We don’t have to worry about the funding because cash is in the bank,” Mason says.
Meanwhile, the Paterson Province in Western Australia hosts the company’s Paterson farm-in project with IGO (ASX:IGO), which Mason says is focused on exploring for copper ore bodies similar to the Nifty discovery.
Paterson, which covers 1,500km2, comes within Newmont’s (ASX:NEM) Telfer Mine and 22Mtpa mineral processing facility, which sits 8km from Rio Tinto’s (ASX:RIO) Winu Project.
“We’ve got the best of both worlds in the current climate, the future-facing copper angle, plus the gold in the bull market with a great outlook,” Mason adds.
Antipa Minerals is presenting at the Noosa Mining Investor Conference, which takes place between 13-15 November at the Peppers Noosa Resort, at 2.30pm AEST today.
Mining.com.au is an official media partner for this year’s Noosa Mining Conference.
Antipa Minerals is an Australian mineral explorer and developer focused primarily on its 877km2 Minyari Dome Project.
The Minyari Dome Project has a total resource estimate of 47.6Mt at 1.51 grams per tonne gold, 0.18% copper, 0.43g/t silver, and 0.03% cobalt for 2.3 million ounces of gold, 83,500 tonnes of copper, 661,000 ounces of silver, and 13,000 tonnes of cobalt.
As of 30 September 2024, the company had $6.611 million in cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report. However, subsequent to the quarter ending, Antipa completed the sale of its 32% non-controlling interest to joint venture partner Rio Tinto for $17 million.
Written By
Aaliyah Rogan
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