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- Antipa Minerals (AZY) and Rio Tinto’s earn-in has moved to the next stage
- Earlier this month, Rio Tinto earned an initial 51 per cent interest in the Citadel project after funding $11 million
- Moving to the next stage will see Rio spend an additional $14 million to increase its interest to 65 per cent
- The mining giant now has the opportunity to increase its interest to 75 per cent by funding a further $35 million over a three year period
- Antipa’s share price is currently unchanged with shares trading for 1.4 cents apiece
Antipa Minerals’ (AZY) partnership with Rio Tinto has proceeded to the next stage of the earn-in into the Citadel Project.
The Citadel Project covers an area of 1300 square kilometres and is located immediately next to Rio Tinto’s Winu project in the Paterson Province in northern Western Australia.
The project is concealed beneath shallow cover and hosts a global mineral resource of 63.8 million tonnes at 0.8g/t gold and 0.2 per cent copper for 1.6 million ounces and 127,000 tonnes of copper.
Citadel is split over two deposits, Magnum and Calibre, both of which are within 45 kilometres of the Winu deposit.
Rio Tinto recently earned an initial 51 per cent interest in Citadel having solely funded $11 million of exploration expenditure since October 2015 when the farm-in agreement was originally signed.
Under the terms of the agreement, Rio Tinto may spend an additional $14 million to increase its interest to 65 per cent.
Rio Tinto has notified Antipa that it will move towards this second stage.
While the initial period in which this extra amount was to be spent was three years, both companies have extended it to five. This will allow for the orderly completion of exploration activities.
It’s expected that Rio will commit to an exploration program of $2 million this year. Field activities are planned to begin in April.
Activities include induced polarisation activities, interpretation of the recently completed airborne gravity survey, drilling of targets generated from the 2019 exploration programs, and the identification and drill testing of additional Greenfield targets.
“We are very pleased that Rio Tinto has decided to continue to sole fund exploration on the Citadel tenements and we look forward to extending what has been a very rewarding partnership to date,” Antipa Executive Chairman Stephen Power said.
“The Calibre and Magnum resources within Citadel have significant potential for further growth which, together with the regional exploration targets, establishes excellent growth prospects for the company,” he added.
Subject to Rio Tinto earning the 65 per cent interest in Citadel and Antipa electing not to contribute to expenditure to maintain its 35 per cent interest, Rio can increase its interest to 75 per cent by funding a further $35 million over a three year period.
Antipa’s share price is currently unchanged with share trading for 1.4 cents apiece at market close.
