Antipa Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZY) has sold its non-controlling interest in the Citadel Joint Venture Project in Western Australia to joint venture partners Rio Tinto for a cash consideration of A$17 million.
The company had been progressing Citadel since 2015, when it entered into a JV agreement with Rio subsidiary Rio Tinto Exploration Pty Ltd (RTX), with 32% investment in the 1,200 square-kilometre play, with RTX the majority holder.
The project – located in WA’s Paterson Province – was focused on two deposits, Calibre and Magnum, with these together holding a mineral resource estimate of 127 million tonnes containing 2.84 million ounces (Moz) of gold at 0.71 grams per tonne (g/t), 173 kilotonnes of copper at 0.13% and 2.1 Moz of silver at 2.1 g/t.
Antipa’s goal in divesting its portion of Citadel appears to be the boosting of cash reserves – which will now be approximately A$23 million – in order to push forward exploration and development of the Minyari Dome copper-gold project, which it owns 100%.
Managing Director Roger Mason, said company executives were pleased to have inked a binding term sheet with Rio Tinto for the sale.
“The sale of our minority, non-controlling, interest in the Citadel Project, which was a non-core asset for Antipa, liberates cash, providing an extremely solid financial foundation from which to accelerate the development of our flagship, wholly owned Minyari Dome Project,” he said.
“Rio Tinto was the natural buyer for Citadel, and the A$17 million all-cash consideration fully
reflects current value of our interest in the asset, positioning us to focus on unlocking the full potential at Minyari Dome.
“Our team is busy finalising an update to the existing Minyari deposit Mineral Resource including simultaneously preparing a maiden Mineral Resource for GEO-01.
“Together, these deposits will form a basis for a revised Minyari Dome Scoping Study. We look forward to sharing the outcomes from these project advancement milestones in the coming weeks.”
Antipa shares have soared on the news, and at 13:04 AEST, they were trading at 1.7 cents – a rise of 21.43% since the market opened.