Newcrest to assume management of Wilki Project

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Antipa Minerals, a mineral exploration company, has announced that Newcrest Operations Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Newcrest Mining Limited has decided to assume management of the farm-in agreement on the Wilki Project in Western Australia.

Antipa Minerals and established gold miner Newcrest Mining signed a farm-in agreement in late February 2020 for a 2,260km2 section of Antipa’s southern landholding in the Paterson Province, dubbed the Wilki Project.

Newcrest Mining had agreed to invest an initial $6 million on exploration within two years of starting the project, another $10 million within five years of starting the project to earn a 51 % interest, and another $44 million within eight years of starting the project to earn a 75 % interest, according to the initial agreement.

Newcrest chose to move through with the farm-in after meeting the initial $6 million minimum exploration expenditure milestone in November 2021 and is now moving towards assuming operatorship.

Adertisement

“Newcrest’s decision to assume operatorship of our Wilki Farm-in Project from July is perfect timing. With our other major partners, Rio Tinto and IGO, already operating our Citadel JV and Paterson Farm-in Projects, respectively, this allows Antipa to dedicate its focus to the rapid advancement of our 100%-owned Minyari Dome Project,” said Managing Director, Roger Mason in an ASX Announcement.

“The recent substantial resource upgrade at Minyari, to 1.8 Moz gold, readily demonstrates why we are now targeting a standalone mining and processing operation at Minyari via the usual evaluation studies. Running in parallel, our major partners will be funding significant greenfield discovery exploration programmes on 5,000km2 of world-class Paterson Province ground. Antipa enjoys the best of both worlds in this respect, with exciting times ahead.”

Image credit: https://antipaminerals.com.au/upload/documents/investors/asx-announcements/220523010444_22-05-23-Antipa-Release-NewcrestElectstoOperateWilkiProject.pdf