In a state known for its mineral endowment sits Western Australia’s Paterson province — 30,000km2 spanning from the east of the Hamersley Basin to the southwest of the Canning Basin.
Home to deposits prospective for gold-copper, base metals, and uranium, one explorer buying into the province’s minerals is Antipa Minerals (ASX:AZY) with its 100%-owned Minyari Dome Gold-Copper Project.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, CEO Roger Mason describes Paterson as one of the “most exciting” gold-copper hubs in Australia, although investors tend to overlook more junior exploration.
“Because of Telfer and its long history, investors can sometimes focus on the major-company production and development assets,” Mason tells this news service.
“That’s understandable, but we think it means the broader district-scale discovery opportunity is still underappreciated.
“Putting the Minyari development opportunity to one side for a moment, our sense is that the wider gold and copper discovery potential across the Paterson is still not fully recognised.
“For us, that is a very important point as we have a defined development asset at Minyari Dome, but also genuine greenfield and brownfield discovery potential across a very large wholly-owned 4,500km2 landholding.”
Antipa’s Minyari Dome is described to have “exceptional development potential”, hosting a resource of 3.6 million ounces gold equivalent, containing 2.9 million ounces of gold, 91,000 tonnes of copper, 880,000 ounces of silver, and 13,000 tonnes of cobalt.
In April 2026, Antipa took off on a major drilling campaign across the project, covering 41,000m of drilling to expand the area’s gold resource further, as reported by Mining.com.au.
The company is incorporating aircore, reverse circulation, and diamond drilling methods to complete this campaign, focusing on copper and gold greenfield targets.
With Minyari in the heart of the Paterson province, the project is more than likely protected from self-sustained infrastructure and investment, a challenge that looms for explorers in some locations.
“Minyari is in no way an isolated project,” Mason explains.
“The district has established infrastructure, a long operating history, growing technical knowledge, approvals precedent, and rapidly increasing investor appetite.
“As more capital goes into the region, and as projects such as Havieron, Winu, and Minyari continue to advance, the district grows in relevance.
“That is when you start to see more investment, infrastructure, technical capability, and exploration activity feeding into each other, reinforcing the cycle.”
Wholly owned by Greatland Resources (ASX:GGP), the Havieron gold-copper deposit has an ore reserve estimate of 38.5 million tonnes @ 2.63 grams per tonne gold and 0.33% copper, containing 3.3 million ounces of gold and 128,000 tonnes of copper.
Just 45km west sits the Telfer gold-copper mine, also owned by Greatland, which acquired the asset from Newmont (ASX:NEM) in December 2024.
Paterson is ‘already there’
For Antipa, CEO Mason describes the Paterson province as having exactly what it needs to advance Minyari.
“It has the geological endowment, it has established infrastructure, and it now has the attention of major companies and capital markets,” Mason says.
“In terms of relevance, we think the Paterson is already there.
“The opportunity now is to convert that geological potential into long-term development and production outcomes.
“We are not alone in rating Minyari as one of the key independent development opportunities within the broader Australian context.”
Antipa expects to complete its ongoing drilling program at Minyari in August 2026.
“The scale and intent of the program are clear,” Mason adds.
“We have allocated more than 26,500m to new discovery drilling and around 14,200m to Minyari Dome deposit growth drilling, so our focus is very clear.”
Before drilling finishes up, Antipa will attend the Noosa Mining Investor Conference, held between 22–24 July, at Peppers Noosa Resort, Noosa Heads, Queensland.
Antipa says it will always welcome the opportunity to share its story with the investment community, with a key message of how the company has evolved from what investors may remember from a few years ago.
“We now have 100% ownership of a very large Paterson landholding, a substantial gold-copper mineral resource estimate (MRE) base at Minyari Dome, an active pathway to development and production and a major drilling campaign underway focused on growth and discovery,” Mason tells Mining.com.au.
“We want investors to understand both sides of the opportunity: Minyari as a standalone development project, one of the best outside of the hands of the majors, and the broader discovery potential across one of the best independent land positions going around.
“We think Noosa has grown to be one of the more effective investor-facing conferences in the Australian resources calendar.
“It tends to attract a strong mix of institutional investors, brokers, advisers, family offices, high-net-worth investors, and sophisticated retail investors, all in a focused setting.
“That makes it a very useful forum for us as it provides the opportunity to speak directly to a broad and engaged investor audience at a time when interest in gold, copper, and quality Australian development assets remains strong.”
Mining.com.au is an official media partner of this year’s conference.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Antipa Minerals
