Antipa Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZY) has started a major Phase 1 drilling campaign at its 100%-owned Minyari Project in Western Australia’s Paterson Province, with the company planning 321 holes for 41,000 metres across its 4,500 square kilometre landholding.
The campaign is aimed at two key outcomes: testing regional greenfield targets for new gold and copper discoveries and expanding the existing Minyari Dome resource base, which forms part of the project’s broader 2.9 million ounce gold, or 3.6 million ounce gold equivalent, mineral resource.
Drilling is expected to run for three to four months and will be funded from its existing cash balance of about A$51.2 million, with assay results to be reported in batches as they become available.
“We’re excited to be drilling again across our Minyari Project, with a large portion of planned metres in this programme directed towards delivering new discoveries across this highly prospective gold-copper-silver mining province," Antipa’s managing director, Roger Mason said.
"We are confident that the scale and quality of our tenure provide a genuine opportunity to build a pipeline of additional deposits proximate to our stand-alone development opportunity. Importantly, our strong cash position allows us to complete this programme while continuing to advance parallel technical workstreams aimed at derisking our development opportunity. Drilling is currently expected to run for up to four months and will be fully funded from our existing cash balance. We look forward to regularly updating shareholders with results from the lab as they become available.”
Program targets discoveries and existing deposits
Of the total planned work, 258 holes for about 26,540 metres have been allocated to new discovery drilling, including 205 air core holes, 51 reverse circulation holes and two diamond core holes. Initial reverse circulation drilling will focus on multiple Minyari Dome gold and copper targets before moving to priority gold and gold-copper targets and nearby prospects including Tim’s Dome, AL01, Chicken Ranch, Jezabeel, Judes and Yolanda.
A further 63 holes for about 14,200 metres are planned for resource growth drilling at Minyari Dome. This part of the program is designed to extend the existing near-surface Minyari Dome mineral resource, which currently stands at 2.5 million ounces of gold, including 2.2 million ounces at 1.6 g/t gold in the indicated category.
Initial resource growth drilling will focus on the GEO-01 area, a combined 1 kilometre by 1 kilometre zone where several deposits remain open down-dip and, in some cases, along strike. Antipa said this offers scope to add further ounces around the existing development opportunity at Minyari Dome.
Map showing the Minyari Dome Mineral Resource locations, October 2024 Scoping Study open pit limits, and contoured maximum down-hole gold drill results. NB: Regional GDA2020 / MGA Zone 51 co-ordinates, 1km grid.
The new campaign follows the company’s April 2026 resource update, which lifted the broader Minyari Project resource to 3.6 million ounces of gold equivalent, underlining the company’s push to convert exploration success into further scale at the project.