Antipa Minerals Ltd (ASX: AZY) has announced a highly encouraging update on the exploration programme for its Citadel Project in Paterson Province of WA.
The company reported that assay results were received for the final diamond and RC drill holes at the Calibre deposit for the 2019 field season.
AZY reported that drilling intersected further significant widths of gold‐copper‐silver mineralisation substantially beyond the limits of the existing Calibre deposit Mineral Resource.
Significant assay results include 310.0m at 0.56 g/t gold and 0.06% copper from 95m down hole in 19CEC0011, including 57.0m at 0.90 g/t gold and 0.03% copper from 105.0m, and 141.0m at 0.72 g/t gold and 0.10% copper from 257.0m.
Other results include 123.0m at 0.69 g/t gold and 0.08% copper from 261m down hole in 19CED0019, including 17.9m at 0.97 g/t gold and 0.07% copper from 261.6m, and 21.1m at 1.05 g/t gold and 0.03% copper from 364.6m.
The company announced that airborne gravity survey is completed and results are expected in early 2020.
Citadel project
The Citadel Project is a JV between Rio Tinto and Antipa, wherein Rio Tinto can fund up to $60 million of exploration expenditure to earn up to a 75% interest in the project.
The Citadel project area consists of approximately 1,300km2 of highly prospective but largely underexplored Proterozoic stratigraphy in the north of the Paterson Province in Western Australia.
Citadel project hosts the Calibre gold-copper-silver-tungsten deposit, the Magnum gold-copper-silver deposit, and several other smaller deposits and promising prospects.
Calibre is located 45km east of Rio Tinto’s Winu copper‐gold‐silver deposit within a similar geological setting.
Calibre and Magnum contain a combined Mineral Resource of 1.6 million ounces of gold and 127,300 tonnes of copper.
2019 exploration programme
The company had recently completed 2019 Exploration Programme which included 6,842m of reverse circulation (RC) and diamond‐core (DD) drill testing of both brownfield and greenfield targets.
The program also included Calibre resource extension targets and aerialelectromagnetic (AEM) conductivity anomalies and magnetic anomalies.
Key components of the Exploration Programme included major ground based electrical geophysical survey, gradient array induced polarization (GAIP), across approximately 70 line‐km whose final analysis is pending; 3,181m of combined RC (1,170m) and DD (2,011m), completed late October, drill testing Calibre gold‐copper‐silver resource extensional targets and conceptual mineralisation targets east of the Calibre resource; 3,661m of RC drill testing of eight AEM conductivity anomalies identified in the 2018 AEM survey; and one aeromagnetic target; and up to approximately 3,000m of RC drill testing of resultant 2019 GAIP chargeability anomalies.
The company reported that the programme was fully funded by Rio Tinto who is farming into the Citadel Project with a $3.4M budget in CY 2019.
Drilling at Calibre
The company said that the Calibre drilling programme aimed to evaluate potential extensions to the existing Mineral Resource.
AZY announced that the assay results received for the 2019 diamond drilling (DD) and reverse circulation (RC) holes confirm significant gold‐copper mineralisation materially beyond the limits of the current Mineral Resource.
Prior to the current drilling, the Calibre deposit had a strike length of approximately 1.6km, was up to 480m thick and open in all directions to produce an Inferred Mineral Resource2 of 47.7Mt at 0.85 g/t gold, 0.15% copper and 0.48 g/t silver for 1.3Moz of gold, 69.5kt of copper and 0.73Moz of silver.
This represents a very large‐scale mineral system with material potential Mineral Resource and exploration upside under 80m of cover and located only 45km east of Rio Tinto’s more recent Winu discovery.
The company said that the drilling has successfully extended mineralisation approximately 350m down dip and 350m along strike to the north of existing Calibre Mineral Resource.
High-grade results
The company reported that significant assay results for this batch of assay results included: 310.0m at 0.56 g/t gold and 0.06% copper from 95m down hole in 19CEC0011, including 57.0m at 0.90 g/t gold and 0.03% copper from 105.0m, also including 18.0m at 1.90 g/t gold and 0.07% copper from 137.0m;
As well as 141.0m at 0.72 g/t gold and 0.10% copper from 257.0m, also including 26.0m at 1.04 g/t gold and 0.21% copper from 270.0m; 24.0m at 1.18 g/t gold and 0.11% copper from 348.0m, and; 14.0m at 1.40 g/t gold and 0.12% copper from 384.0m.
Other results include 123.0m at 0.69 g/t gold and 0.08% copper from 261m down hole in 19CED0019, including: 17.9m at 0.97 g/t gold and 0.07% copper from 261.6m, and; 21.1m at 1.05 g/t gold and 0.03% copper from 364.6m.
Next steps
The company reported that the planned further work includes ongoing review and interpretations of the 2019 and historical exploration data; planning and execution of follow‐up exploration activities to identify potential high‐grade mineralisation; geophysical data modelling (including AEM and Aeromagnetics); and full geological interpretation including 3D modelling where data supports.
Other exploration and related activities on the Citadel Project include planning for 2020 exploration programmes, including drilling; ongoing target generation from all available data including the current 2019 GAIP survey; and possible Calibre deposit Mineral Resource update following drilling.
