Antipa Minerals (ASX:AZY) reports it has identified growth opportunities from phase one drilling at the Minyari Dome Project, located in the Patterson Province of Western Australia.
The company says it has received assays for the phase one drilling program drilled for 13,252m comprising of 8,200m greenfield plus 5,052 Minyari deposit resource definition and Keel target, and the results support the opportunity for resource growth from several prospects located less than 400m away from the Minyari and WACA deposits including Chicane, Minyari North and the Minyari Keel zone.
Phase one exploration was completed in mid-August and consisted of a 10,000m reverse circulation (RC) drill program testing ‘high-priority’ resource and greenfield targets, a 3,000m diamond core drill program testing ‘high-priority’ resource targets, and a project-scale high-resolution airborne gravity gradiometry (AGG) survey to assist drill targeting and regional 3D geological modelling.
Antipa Managing Director Roger Mason said these phase one results continue to highlight the prospectivity of the Minyari Dome Project.
“We believe there is strong potential to continue to grow the resource through both extensional and greenfield drilling. The company is continuing greenfield exploration across the project in parallel with project evaluation activities.
“We believe there is strong potential to continue to grow the resource through both extensional and greenfield drilling”
The Minyari Dome Project economics are hugely leveraged to future resource growth and we have a pipeline of high-prospectivity gold-copper targets to drill. Located just 500m along strike from Minyari, the Minyari North prospect is showing characteristics consistent with mineralisation at the periphery of a Minyari style deposit.
As a result, future exploration drilling will test the down plunge extent of the mineralisation. We have also interpreted a very promising 300m long ‘jog’ corridor at Chicane, linking the Sundown and WACA mineralisation trends. The Pre-feasibility study continues to enhance the potential of the scoping study’s mining inventory of 1,100,000oz of gold to deliver an attractive stand-alone gold mining and processing development.
A miscellaneous licence application for the future mine access road has been submitted as early study workstreams continue at pace for scheduled delivery during Q4 2023. On top of all this activity, Antipa has been successful in round 26 of the Exploration Incentive Scheme receiving a Western Australian Government grant of up to $220,000 for testing deep Minyari targets.”
Antipa reports phase one drilling at the Minyari Keel Zone has confirmed the presence of narrow ‘high-grade’ mineralisation which remains open in several directions and requires further follow-up drilling. This resource opportunity also could lead to extensions of the potential open pit underground mining in the southern region of the Minyari deposit.
Significant intersections recorded at the Minyari Keel Zone includes 4m @ 6g/t Au, 0.65% Cu and 2g/t Ag from 534.5m including 0.84m @ 18.7g/t Au, 2.32% Cu and 6.2g/t Ag from 534.5m in 21MYCD0340, and 4m @ 3.6g/t Au, 0.30% Cu and 1.6g/t Ag from 153m including 1m @ 11.2g/t Au, 1.09% Cu and 5.9g/t Ag from 154m in 22MYC0349.
At the steep dipping Sundown deposit, the company says mineralisation associated with intense Minyari style hydrothermal alteration remains open in several directions and the initial maiden resource is set to be increased with additional follow-up drilling warranted. Sundown is 300m west of Minyari, and several zones of steeply dipping narrow gold-copper mineralisation was intersected along 160m of strike and 190m down-dip, and features a coincident IP chargeability anomaly.
Antipa reports Minyari North features the same host rocks and hydrothermal alteration style as Minyari, and the steep dipping mineralisation is interpreted to be moderate northwest plunging and remains open in several directions, and has been prioritised for further follow-up drilling down dip and along strike.
Minyari North is located 500m northwest along strike from Minyari and features a 300m long coincident magnetic-high and IP chargeability anomaly, and drillholes here intersected disseminated and semi-massive breccia style sulphides (pyrrhotite-pyrite-chalcopyrite) hosted by albite-sericite altered metasediments and mafic intrusions.
The company reports a single drillhole was completed at the Chicane prospect which has highlighted the potential for further resource growth along the interpreted 300m long structural ‘jog’ corridor and follow-up drilling is required. Chicane is located 200m north of the WACA deposit and 450m southwest of Minyari, and drillhole 22MYC0371 intersected 8m @ 2.9g/t Au from 293m including 3m @ 6.8g/t Au from 293m.
Antipa says at the GP01 deposit, the host rocks, mineralisation and alteration scale and style are the same as Minyari and gold-copper mineralisation is interpreted to be steep east dipping. Drillhole 21MYC0245 intersected 27m @ 1.7g/t Au and 0.1% Cu including 7m @ 3.9g/t Au and 0.1% Cu, and additional follow-up drilling is contingent on the outcomes of an ongoing technical review.
At the Minyari South deposit, the company did not intersect any material mineralisation through phase 1 step-out drillholes and additional follow-up drilling is contingent on the outcome of an ongoing technical review.
Antipa also notes 4 ‘encouraging’ gold-copper pathfinder soil anomalies identified in a fine fraction soil geochemical sampling program conducted in 2021 have the potential to deliver further greenfield copper-gold discoveries and the 2 ‘highest’ priority soil anomalies (GEO-1 and GEO-02) have been prioritised for follow up aircore drill testing planned for later this month.
In addition to commencing the Prefeasibility Study (PFS), Antipa aims to ‘significantly’ increase the Minyari Dome Project mineral resource via 2 exploration programs testing a range of copper-gold-cobalt resource extension targets, prospects and greenfield targets. Mineral resource extension opportunities have been identified at Minyari Down Plunge, Minyari Keel Zone, Minyari South and Sundown; while maiden mineral resource opportunities have been identified at Minyari North, Chicane, GP01, and WACA East.
The second phase of the exploration program commenced late September and will be completed in the first half of 2023, and this phase comprises up to 9,000m of diamond core drilling, 1,400m of aircore drilling and follow-up RC drilling.
Antipa says the PFS is scheduled for completion in Q4 2023 and is planned to incorporate the next MRE update into the mine scheduling and progress a range of opportunities identified in the scoping study. PFS workstreams include up to 5,000m of diamond drilling targeting an upgrade of significant portions of the existing inferred mineral resource to indicated mineral resource category.
The company has also received a grant of up to $220,000 through the Western Australian Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) for diamond core testing of deep Minyari trend targets.
Antipa Minerals is an Australian mineral exploration and development company focused on the Minyari Dome Project which covers 5,200km-square in the Paterson Province region of Western Australia.
Images: Antipa Minerals Ltd
