Antipa Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZY) has discovered a new prospect at the fully-owned Minyari Dome Gold Project in Western Australia, unearthing shallow, broad intersections of gold at the GEO-01 target outside the current mineral resource boundary.
Of particular note was a large intersection of 68 metres grading 1.4 g/t gold from 16 metres of depth, with a higher-grade component of 36 metres at 2.6 g/t gold.
The company says mineralisation at GEO-01 remains open in most directions, offering plenty of exploration potential for further gold results.
Growing near-surface open-pit resource
“We are very pleased to report the discovery of thick, near-surface, high-grade gold mineralisation at GEO-01 just 1.3 kilometres from our Minyari gold resource,” Antipa Minerals managing director Roger Mason said.
“These first-pass GEO-01 RC drilling results support our belief that there is excellent potential to grow the near-surface, open-pit amenable, resource this year.
“The Minyari Dome Project economics are hugely leveraged to future resource growth, with any successful follow-up drilling of the GEO-01 gold discovery likely to significantly enhance the Minyari Dome development opportunity.
“We look forward to further evaluating GEO-01 with the objective of delivering a significant maiden resource as we continue the systematic testing of other high-potential targets, including Tetris, during our Phase 2 drilling program during the remainder of this year.”
Other results of note from GEO-01 drilling include:
- 24 metres at 1.3 g/t gold from 16 metres down hole, including 4 metres at 6.7 g/t from 28 metres; and
- 48 metres at 1.3 g/t gold and 0.05% copper from 132 metres down hole to end of hole, including 28 metres at 2.2 g/t gold and 0.05% copper from 132 metres.
AZY intends to follow up on GEO-01 and other results from its 2023 exploration campaign with reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling - planning is well underway.
A further 4,200 metres of AZY’s 7,300-metre RC drilling program are still outstanding, which may offer more targets for follow-up exploration.
Finally, Antipa also plans to conduct diamond drilling at the high-potential Tetris and Pacman targets, which will be supported by a WA Government drilling grant to the tune of $220,000 for each program.