Initial assays reveal thick gold zones at Antipa’s Minyari Dome deposit

Early stage drilling south of Antipa Minerals’ (ASX: AZY) Minyari Dome gold deposit in Western Australia’s Paterson Province has intersected two zones of thick, high-grade gold-copper-cobalt mineralisation and confirmed the resource’s ongoing growth potential.

A drill hole 300 metres south of Minyari Dome, was given laboratory priority after “encouraging” field observations highlighted its potential.

The hole returned a high-grade intercept of 18m at 3.05 grams per tonne gold, 0.32% copper and 0.05% cobalt downhole from 47m, including 1m at 18.25g/t gold, 1.33% copper and 0.15% cobalt from 52m.

Also recorded was an intercept of 2.0m at 11.03g/t gold, 0.20% copper and 0.05% cobalt from 91m, including 1m at 19.59g/t gold, 0.24% copper and 0.09% cobalt from 91m.

The two zones of mineralisation identified within the drill hole are approximately 70m southwest of a high-grade intercept returned in 2017 from Antipa’s air core drilling activities.

That intercept was 6m at 9.28g/t gold and 0.05% copper from 31m, including 2m at 25.25g/t gold from 32m.

Antipa said this latest drill hole builds on pre-2018 drilling, which had been predominantly shallow with an average depth of just 27m.

“[Our results have shown] a significant new region of high-grade gold-copper-cobalt mineralisation in the Minyari South area and confirm the growth potential proximal to the existing Minyari Dome mineral resources,” the company said.

Antipa said it is uncertain at this stage whether the two zones, which are approximately 70m apart, are connected or whether multiple zones of high-grade mineralisation may be present in the Minyari Dome area.

World-class mineral provinces

Antipa was established to identify under-explored mineral projects in provinces hosting world-class deposits, thereby offering high leverage exploration and development potential.

The company owns more than 5,700 square kilometres of tenements in the Paterson Province and an additional 1,300sqkm of granted exploration licences known as the North Telfer project, which hosts the high-grade gold-copper Minyari and WACA mineral resources.

The tenements extend Antipa’s regional groundholding to within 20km of Newcrest Mining’s (ASX: NCM) Telfer gold-copper-silver mine, and 30km of the company’s O’Callaghans tungsten-base metals deposit.

Aggressive drilling campaign

In June, Antipa launched an aggressive 50,000m drilling campaign to pursue development and exploration opportunities across the Paterson and North Telfer projects.

The 12-month program is aimed at rapidly expanding the current resource to support future scoping studies and deliver greenfield discoveries.

It will comprise air core drilling, an expansive aerial electromagnetic and induced polarisation (IP) geophysical survey, surface geochemical sampling and geological mapping programs.

At midday, shares in Antipa were up 7.14% to A$0.015.