Antipa Minerals uncovers more high-grade gold, copper at Minyari deposit

Antipa Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZY) has discovered further high-grade gold and copper mineralisation at its 100%-owned Minyari Dome Project. In today’s ASX release, the mineral exploration company outlined the remaining assays from the first portion of its phase one drilling campaign, which set out to test for resource extensions, explore for new mineralisation zones and upgrade parts of the multi-element project’s mineral resource. The ASX-lister hit its stride with drill hole 21MYC0216, which intersected 172 metres at 1.68 g/t gold and 0.21% copper from 230 metres down hole including much as 55.6 g/t gold, 3.7% copper and 17.5 g/t silver, and ended in mineralisation. Significantly, the high-grade precious and base metal mineralisation uncovered within the drill hole is considered materially thicker than the current inferred mineral resource at Minyari Dome. Antipa’s phase one drilling program continues, with three drill rigs currently on-site to execute around 5,000 metres of reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling across the Western Australian asset. Results confirm upgrade potential Antipa managing director Roger Mason said: “These exciting 21MYC0216 results confirm the potential for significant resource growth at the Minyari deposit as well as the potential for a standalone development opportunity based on an open-pit and underground mining operation that is close to Telfer. “We are in the middle of the most active drilling year in Antipa’s history with nine rigs currently drilling across our four Paterson projects and we are delighted with the early success of this year’s program to date." Key drill hole To date, Antipa has received results for 11 reverse circulation drill holes, covering 3,282 metres, at its Minyari Dome project. Overall, the minerals exploration company believes the initial results compare favourably with the current mineral resource domains at the project, discovering significant additional high-grade gold and copper mineralisation to the east of the existing Minyari resource. Resource infill drill hole 21MYC0216 has shown particular promise, encountering materially thicker mineralisation zones compared to the inferred mineral resource. The remaining results for this key drill hole have now been received. Highlights include: 172 metres at 1.68 g/t gold and 0.21% copper from 230 metres to end-of-hole; 10 metres at 2.07 g/t gold and 0.19% copper from 334 metres; 31 metres at 3.17 g/t gold, 0.35% copper and 1.17 g/t silver from 359 metres, including 1-metre at 55.6 g/t gold, 3.7% copper and 17.5 g/t silver from 359 metres; and 2 metres at 5.58 g/t gold, 1.97% copper and 3.66 g/t silver from 381 metres. With the reverse circulation hole ending in mineralisation, Antipa intends to further explore its potential with a diamond tail. Ultimately, initial assays from the ASX-lister’s phase one program have: Proven that significant zones of very high‐grade gold-copper-silver-cobalt mineralisation exist outside the current Minyari deposit mineral resource estimate boundary; Discovered new high-grade gold-copper mineralisation at Minyari East, which extended the overall width of the Minyari mineralisation envelope to around 275 metres; Further confirmed that high-grade mineralisation is commonly associated with sulphide matrixed breccia zones, analogous to the Haverion gold-copper style of  mineralisation; and Confirmed Minyari mineralisation remains open down plunge, along strike to the north, variously open across strike to the east ± west and potentially open to the south up-plunge and at depth.  Drilling at Minyari Dome Antipa’s multi-element Minyari Dome asset spans 144 square kilometres across Western Australia’s prolific Paterson Province. The 100%-owned project, which is prospective for a range of precious and base metals, hosts the Minyari and WACA deposits. These key assets host a combined mineral resource of 723,340 gold ounces, 26,390 copper tonnes, 233,290 silver ounces and 4,060 cobalt tonnes. Antipa’s phase one exploration program kicked off at Minyari Dome in early May, testing for extensions to current resources at the Minyari and WACA deposits. Overall, the company intends to drill 21,000 metres across the wholly-owned asset during the phase one campaign, with around 12,000 metres of reverse circulation and 4,000 metres of diamond drilling now complete. The initial drill program was scheduled to finalise mid-next month, but Antipa believes the early results warrant further exploration. As a result, the company will add more drilling activity to the phase one program in the hope it can fast-track drill evaluation across the high-grade Minyari East lode and the broader eastern target area. This work will include diamond drilling extensions over select reverse circulation holes, more RC drilling up-dip and up-plunge to the south and further diamond drilling down-dip and down-plunge to the north.