Newmont exercises top-up right to maintain 8.6 per cent stake in junior explorer Antipa Minerals
US gold mining giant Newmont has exercised its top-up right to maintain its 8.6 per cent stake in junior gold explorer Antipa Minerals.
The top-up placement delivered about $540,000 of the $5.75m in additional new equity funds raised.
Small-cap investor Lion Selection Group also participated in the placement, which was brokered by Euroz Hartleys and Canaccord Genuity, dropping in $2m for a stake of about 4 per cent in Antipa.
Antipa will issue Newmont about 54.15 million shares at 1c each after previously striking a drill-for-equity agreement with Topdrill that has taken new funding to $7.25m.
Antipa managing director Roger Mason said the decision by Newmont to tip more money into the company represented a strong endorsement of its Paterson Province portfolio and exploration strategy.
“With continued support from the world’s largest goldmining company, we are excited for phase 2 drilling to begin and look forward to exploring the potential at GEO-01 and more broadly within Minyari Dome,” Mr Mason said.
Newmont is Antipa’s farm-in partner on the Wilki Project, which is within 3km of Newmont’s Telfer gold-copper-silver mine and 22 million-tonne-per- processing plant. The project is also 9km from Newmont-Greatland Gold’s Havieron gold-copper project.
Antipa, which has a market capitalisation of $51.8m, will use the cash raised to continue the advancement of Minyari Dome, including resource growth and discovery-focused exploration and development appraisal.
The phase 2 exploration program is planned for the second half of 2024 and is scheduled to include reverse circulation and diamond core drilling predominantly at the GEO-01 prospect.
The key program objective is an increase to the overall size of the project inventory of 1.8 million ounces of gold, 64,300 tonnes of copper, 584,000 ounces of silver and 11,100 tonnes of cobalt.
The previous scoping study used an assumed gold price of $US1750 an ounce, which at the time translated to an Australian dollar gold price of $2431, based on a dollar buying US72c.
The updated scoping study is slated for completion in August.
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