This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Anax Metals. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
Anax Metals (ASX:ANX) is positioning itself as a different kind of junior company, having rebranded several years ago from Aurora Minerals on the back of the acquisition of the Whim Creek Copper-Zinc Project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Managing Director Geoff Laing describes the polymetallic nature of Whim Creek, a brownfields project that was historically operated by Straits Resources (now Aeris Resources).
“The mineralogy is a classic volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) mineralogy,” Laing says.
“Our primary element is copper, but we also have zinc, lead, silver, and gold, and all of those in payable quantities, with pretty significant quantities of zinc and silver.”
As a fully permitted mine, Anax is focused on bringing Whim Creek into production within 18 months of a final investment decision (FID).
Anax is setting the stage, through the Whim Creek Project and Processing Hub, to create a broader base metals processing hub in Western Australia, potentially expanding out to broader regional opportunities as they arise.
Whim Creek: Strategic project with polymetallic potential
Laing describes the project as ideally situated in the Pilbara, right in Australia’s premier mining jurisdiction.
“We sit right on the Northwest Highway, so we’re ideally located from a logistics perspective, within this emerging base metals province,” Laing says.
The Whim Creek asset itself includes four VMS style deposits of varying forms, with the future plan to mine two of them as open pits and the two others as underground assets.
On that emerging hub, Laing notes that there are several other base metals assets surrounding Whim Creek.
“The Pilbara is much better known for iron ore and gold, and more recently lithium, but in fact there’s a substantial number of base metals assets, a lot of them VMS style,” Laing says.
“It’s those assets that we’re interested in from a hub perspective.”
Whim Creek, as a historical fully permitted mine, has a significant amount of infrastructure in place from when Straits developed the project, and Anax plans to make good use of this infrastructure to get a new mining operation ready to go.
Anax intends to exploit the sulfide resources at Whim Creek.
“Straits exploited all of the oxide resources and left behind the sulfides,” Laing says.
“We’ll go in, we’ll open pit mine two of the resources and then underground the two others, and through traditional crushing, grinding, and flotation, produce copper, lead, and zinc concentrates, with a very healthy touch of silver and gold.”
Building on the hub strategy, Anax then intends to expand that operation, bringing in satellite feed from other assets.
Enhanced economics and strong returns from Whim Creek
As Anax builds momentum with Whim Creek, an updated Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) was released in late February 2026, with an update on costs and pricing, boosting the project’s valuation, as previously reported.
The updated DFS outlines a pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 98%, up from 54%, and free cash flows up 113% to $723 million, with a pre-tax net present value (7%, Real)) of $501 million.
Whim Creek has a 10-year mine life as well, backed by 4.6 million tonnes of reserves grading 1.36% copper, 2.31% zinc, 0.67% lead, 30 grams per tonne silver, and 0.27g/t gold.
Development costs are about $91 million.
Laing notes that the updated DFS outlines great potential for Whim Creek.
“The outcome is that costs have gone up, but the metal pricing went up significantly more and the project is highly leveraged to the metals price.
“And while capital costs have gone up, we’ve optimised how we’re going to work this project.”
Laing notes that because Whim Creek hosts ‘high-grade’ resources, they only need a relatively small plant and will be putting greater volumes of metal units through this.
“We’re also able to use the existing pits for tailings, so there’s no need to build a tailings dam, which is good from every angle you can think of.”
Accelerated pathway leveraging brownfields advantage
Looking at the timeline to production, Laing explains the benefits of working a brownfields project.
“One of the key challenges for any new project is the permitting, including on heritage.”
The market can find it difficult to assess risk without permits in place. With Whim Creek being a brownfields project, it cuts the timeline to development significantly without having to wait for more permitting.
“Once we get the financing in place, it should be an 18 month period from final investment decision through to production,” Laing says.
Anax has recently done a placement to raise $10 million to cover existing loans and for exploration costs, with $5.2 million raised in tranche one, as previously reported, through the issuance of 225.53 million shares.
The company will raise another $4.81 million through the issuance of 209.25 million shares in tranche two, subject to shareholder approval in May 2026.
Company Directors have committed $1.06 million in tranche two, following shareholder approval.
Innovative ore sorting and bioleaching for sustainable mining
Anax is strongly committed to using technology, through ore sorting, bioleaching, and more, with Laing noting that technology is “part of our DNA” and should be used to work towards better outcomes.
“Everyone’s looking for an edge, and I think technology is an obvious one for us.”
Laing highlights two key areas where Anax is focused on adopting new technology and utilising it to drive better outcomes.
“The first is in pre-concentration, using this fantastic ore technology which is evolving all the time,” Laing says.
“This allows us to decouple the run-of-mine ore, strip out all the waste, and upgrade it before it goes into the main processing step.
“This technology is currently used in all waste recycling, and is now widely being used in mining. If you’re smart about how you apply it, it can really deliver huge benefits.”
The other area is with bioleaching technology, a natural process wherein bacteria or “bugs” are cultivated to do the leaching itself.
Anax has worked closely with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) on their bioleaching.
In comparison to heap leach technology which uses acid to dissolve the copper oxide minerals for further downstream processing, bioleaching is completely natural and works without any added chemicals as the bugs actually generate their own acid which is used for processing.
The benefits go beyond the environmental as well.
“When you look at it on balance, the environmental benefits are significant,” Laing says.
“Transportation costs are lower, there’s very little downstream processing required, and it uses less power, less water, less diesel, and less chemicals within the process itself.”
Laing takes a balanced approach to bioleaching, but when looking at all the advantages and disadvantages, he can see why so many of the majors are adopting this approach.
There is less uptake on the junior end of the industry, mostly because the process takes quite a bit more time and the development of infrastructure and civil works can be quite costly.
“For us, we’ve had an easier path because we had that infrastructure in place already, so it was a natural progression to do bioleaching,” Laing says.
As bioleaching becomes more mainstream at the larger end of the industry, Laing does note that he expects to see similar uptake on the junior side.
Capital raise fuels growth and reserve expansion
Laing notes that with Anax’s recent capital raise, they’ve gained a lot of steam in driving the project forward.
“We intend to keep delivering upside, and that’ll be by way of increased reserves first off,” Laing says.
The funding was one of the key focuses and not that that’s in place, Anax is able to move forward with other project plans.
Backed by strong economics and a clear path to production, Anax Metals is leveraging Whim Creek’s brownfields advantage and innovative use of technology to fast-track production and establish a new base metals hub in the Pilbara.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au and Anax Metals
