• Antipa Minerals (AZY) completes scoping study confirming ‘robustness’ of stand-alone operation at its Minyari Dome project in WA
• Over its eight-year life, 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 described an average all-inclusive sustaining cost of $1,062 ($1,548) per ounce and a payback period of approximately 2.5 years.
• Looking ahead, Antipa plans to undertake a pre-feasibility study which will incorporate an updated mineral resource estimate expected by the middle of next year.
• AZY shares are trading 1.49% in the red at 3.3 cents at 11:42 a.m. AEST

Antipa Minerals (AZY) has announced the results of a scoping study for its Minyari Dome gold project in the Paterson Province of Western Australia.

Snowden Optiro and Strategic Metallurgy have 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% copper, 0 .54 g/t of silver and 0.03% of cobalt for 1.8 million ounces of gold, 64,300 tons of copper, 584,000 ounces of silver and 11,100 tons of cobalt.

The scoping study would have confirmed the “technical and financial robustness” of a stand-alone gold mining and processing operation at Minyari Dome.

Minyari Dome’s base case operation involves a carbon-in-leach processing plant with a design throughput capacity of three million tonnes per year.

Over an eight-year life, the Minyari Dome project is expected to produce 975,000 ounces of gold with an average of 168,000 ounces per year for the first five years. The project will also produce 350,000 ounces of silver.

Excluding the pre-production strip mining period, the study described an average all-in sustaining cost of US$1,062 (AU$1,548) per ounce and an after-tax payback period of 2. 54 years old.

Based on current prices, the Minyari Dome project will generate a pre-tax net present value (NPV) of $392 million and a pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 34%. The after-tax figures include an NPV of $278 million and an IRR of 29%.

Antipa expects pre-production capital costs to total $275 million, including $67.7 million for pre-production surface mining.

“Over the past 18 months, Antipa has started to really unleash the potential of Minyari Dome,” said general manager Roger Mason.

“We have increased the MRE for the project by 250%, accompanied by a pipeline of new high-prospect gold-copper targets.

“Critically, this is just the beginning for Minyari Dome. The economics of the project are hugely leveraged for future resource growth, both expansion drilling opportunities and new fields.

The company launched an “aggressive growth” drilling program on the project in June to test open-pit targets and potentially extend the life of the high-grade mine.

Antipa Minerals plans to continue this program throughout the year and is targeting an MRE update for mid-2023.

In addition to the 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 point, Antipa expects the PFS to be completed in Q4 2023.

AZY shares were trading down 1.49% at 3.3 cents as of 11:42 a.m. AEST.