Antipa Minerals will retain full ownership of the tenements surrounding the Minyari Dome gold project in Western Australia, bringing the company’s landholding in the Paterson Province to 4060km2.
This follows IGO withdrawing from the $30 million Paterson project farm-in agreement it entered into with Antipa in July 2020.
In December 2021, IGO met its initial commitment of $4 million in exploration expenditure and chose to assume management of the Paterson project effective March 2022. Exploration efforts focused on uncovering new copper discoveries.
The next stage of the farm-in required IGO to spend an additional $26 million on exploration within a 6.5-year period to earn a 70 per cent joint venture interest. A further $11 million was invested by IGO, bringing its total investment in the Paterson project to $15 million.
However, IGO could withdraw from the farm-in at the end of any program and budget during this stage, in which case the agreement would terminate and Antipa would retain 100 per cent ownership and management of the Paterson project, which spans 1520km2.
That is what has now taken place.
“Antipa’s foresight in recognising the regional opportunity within the Paterson, combined with our early-mover actions, has delivered a significant advantage that is beginning to reveal itself,” Antipa managing director Roger Mason said.
“The full retention of this project is a fantastic result for Antipa, delivering a twofold benefit: first, the tenement package completely surrounds our flagship Minyari Dome project, further enhancing any future standalone development and second, while exploration has been focused on copper discoveries several years, we have long recognised multiple gold-dominant opportunities on this ground which we are excited to now be able to properly interrogate.
“The consolidation of the Paterson Province continues, and we are set to play a major role in its future.”
Minyari Dome’s combined mineral resource contains 2.3 million ounces of gold, 84,000 tonnes (t) of copper, 661,000 ounces of silver and 13,000t of cobalt.
IGO identified multiple high-potential gold and copper prospects and greenfield targets surrounding Minyari Dome, which are primed for follow-up or initial drill testing throughout 2025.
These include the AL01 and PP-GRAV02 targets and extensions to the GEO-01 and Rizzo gold mineralisation.
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