Antares Metals (ASX:AM5) has agreed to acquire a 90% interest in mining lease M51/19, which hosts the historic Enterprise gold mine within its Quinns tenure.
The earn-in agreement with CNN Investments requires Antares to pay $50,000 cash, issue 20 million shares at $0.005 each, and incur $200,000 in exploration expenditure within two years. CNN will retain a 10% free-carried interest to production.
The Enterprise mine produced 1,389.5 tonnes for 865.41 ounces of gold at an average recovered grade of 19.30g/t between 1897 and 1917. Previous reverse circulation (RC) drilling by St Barbara (ASX:SBM) and Silver Swan Group returned shallow, ‘high-grade’ mineralisation, including 9m @ 4.68 grams per tonne gold (Au) from 28m and 7m @ 2.88g/t Au from 27m.
Managing Director Terence Topping describes the acquisition as “an important strategic agreement for Antares”.
“The Enterprise Mine has already returned historic high-grade RC drill results […] and the granted mining lease sits directly adjacent to the high-grade soil anomaly at our Venture prospect,” Topping says.
The acquisition increases Antares’ drill target count at Quinns to four prospects — Enterprise, Fennell, Finlay, and Venture.
The company’s 383km² Quinns tenure covers 20km of the Meekatharra greenstone belt. The Venture prospect contains a 600m by 250m gold anomaly with peak values of 1,570 parts per billion gold, while the Fennell prospect has returned rock chip samples up to 65.20g/t Au.
Antares is expanding its current aircore drilling program to 2,500m to test for extensions of Enterprise mineralisation, alongside planned soil sampling and belt-wide geophysical surveys.
The Quinns project sits approximately 10km from Monument Mining’s (TSX-V:MMY) Burnakura mill and 50km from multiple Westgold Resources (ASX:WGX) operating mills.
Share issuance requires shareholder approval at the company’s November 2026 annual general meeting. If approval is not obtained, Antares will instead pay CNN $100,000 cash.
Antares Metals is an Australia-focused multi-commodity explorer advancing two district-scale exploration hubs in proven mineral provinces.
Write to Paula Fabe at Mining.com.au
Main image: Antares Metals
