Second Diamond Drill Rig Scheduled To Arrive In Late April
Antipa Minerals Limited (ASX: AZY) and Rio Tinto have agreed to an expanded Citadel Joint Venture Project CY2021 Exploration Programme in Western Australia.
Antipa’s Managing Director, Roger Mason, said the new Programme has an increased budget of approximately A$24.5 million (previously A$13.8 million).
As a result of sole funding in excess of $25 million in exploration expenditure on the Citadel Joint Venture Project to date, Rio Tinto’s joint venture interest has now increased from 51% to 65%.
“The recent increase in the Citadel JV’s 2021 budget is a testament to the joint venture’s strong belief in the potential of this project,” Mr Mason said.
“The 2021 programme will be the largest yet and we look forward to continuing to advance the high potential Calibre and Magnum resources as well as test numerous greenfield targets”.
The new expanded Citadel JV 2021 Exploration Programme, to be operated by Rio Tinto, comprises the following activities:
- A 19,000m reverse circulation (RC) and diamond core (DD) drill programme focused on the Magnum Dome area, which hosts the Calibre and Magnum gold‐copper‐silver Mineral Resources and Corker deposit, and the Rimfire area together with select regional targets including the Boxer GAIP target.
- Undertaking preliminary metallurgical test‐work at Calibre;
- Appraisal work in respect of early stage project development options at the Calibre deposit;
- Continuation of the GAIP survey programme across prospective structural corridors of the Citadel tenements, prioritising areas that have had limited or no testing of the basement by drilling;
- Ongoing processing and interpretation of GAIP and drill hole data, including final 2020 programme data, together with Calibre deposit and Magnum Dome modelling to identify further priority target areas and support a potential Mineral Resource update; and
- Calibre camp infrastructure installation and expansion.
The Citadel JV 2021 Exploration Programme is currently underway with two RC drill rigs testing multiple gold‐copper targets at the Rimfire area, before moving to the Boxer target. The first DD rig recently commenced drilling at Calibre, with a second DD rig due later this month. The GAIP geophysical survey is also scheduled to commence during April.
The Citadel Joint Venture Project comprises a +1,300 sq. km tenement package located in the prospective Paterson Province in northern Western Australia, 80km north of Newcrest’s Telfer gold‐copper‐silver mine and processing facility, and 5km east of Rio Tinto’s Winu copper‐gold‐silver deposit and development project.
The Citadel Project hosts a global Mineral Resource of 63.8Mt at 0.8g/t gold and 0.2% copper for 1.6Moz gold and 127kt copper. An update to the existing Calibre Mineral Resource is expected to be completed during the current quarter.
In July 2020, a maiden JORC 2012 Inferred Mineral Resource of 503Mt at 0.35% copper, 0.27 g/t gold and 2.15 g/t silver (containing 4.4Moz of gold, 1.8Mt of copper and 35Moz of silver) was announced for Winu.
Calibre, which is located just 45km from Winu, represents a very large‐scale mineral system with material potential exploration upside under just 80m of cover, with a strike length of approximately 1.6km, up to 480m thick and open in several directions.
