- Antipa Minerals (AZY) completes a scoping study which confirms the “robustness” of a stand-alone operation at its Minyari Dome project in WA
- Over its eight-year life-of-mine, the project will produce 975,000 ounces of gold and 350,000 ounces of silver with pre-production costs expected to total $275 million
- The study outlined an average all-in sustaining cost of US$1062 (A$1548) per ounce and payback period of roughly 2.5 years
- Looking ahead, Antipa plans to undertake a pre-feasibility study which will incorporate an updated mineral resource estimate scheduled for mid next year
- AZY shares are trading 1.49 per cent in the red at 3.3 cents at 11:42 am AEST
Antipa Minerals (AZY) has announced the outcomes of a scoping study for its Minyari Dome gold project in Western Australia’s Paterson province.
Snowden Optiro and Strategic Metallurgy completed the study which is based on a mineral resource estimate of 33.9 million tonnes at 1.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 0.19 per cent copper, 0.54 g/t silver and 0.03 per cent cobalt for 1.8 million ounces of gold, 64,300 tonnes of copper, 584,000 ounces of silver and 11,100 tonnes of cobalt.
The scoping study reportedly confirmed the “technical and financial robustness” of a stand‐alone gold mining and processing operation at Minyari Dome.
The Minyari Dome’s base case operation involves a processing carbon-in-leach plant with a nameplate throughput capacity of three million tonnes per annum.
Over a life-of-mine of eight years, the Minyari Dome Project is forecast to produce 975,000 ounces of gold with an average of 168,000 ounces per annum for the first five years. The project will also produce 350,000 ounces of silver.
Excluding the pre-production open pit mining period, the study outlined an average all-in sustaining cost of US$1062 (A$1548) per ounce and a post-tax payback period of 2.54 years.
Based on current prices, the Minyari Dome project will deliver a pre-tax net present value (NPV) of $392 million and a pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 34 per cent. Post-tax figures include a NPV of $278 million and 29 per cent IRR.
Antipa expects pre-production capital costs will total $275 million including $67.7 million for pre-production open pit mining.
“Over the last 18 months, Antipa has started to truly unlock the potential of Minyari Dome,” Managing Director Roger Mason said.
“We have delivered a 250 per cent increase to the MRE for the project, accompanied by a pipeline of further high‐prospectivity gold‐copper greenfield targets.
“Critically, this is just the beginning for Minyari Dome. Project economics are hugely leveraged to future resource growth, from both extensional and greenfield drilling opportunities.”
The company began an “aggressive growth” drilling program at the project in June to test open pit targets and potentially extend the high-grade mine life.
Antipa Minerals plans to continue this program throughout the remainder of the year and is targeting an MRE update for the middle of 2023.
In addition to drilling and with the completion of the scoping study, the company will begin a pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the Minyari Dome project. The PFS will incorporate next year’s resource update.
At this stage, Antipa expects the PFS will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2023.
AZY shares were trading 1.49 per cent at 3.3 cents at 11:42 am AEST.