The share price of exploration company Antipa Minerals gained 10% on Wednesday as the company announced the final results from its Phase 1 reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the Minyari Dome gold/copper project, in the Paterson province of Western Australia.

The RC drilling programme has successfully identified new zones of near-surface gold mineralisation across Minyari Dome. These new zones are along the northern edge of the GEO-01 discovery, at the GPo1 target, and at the Minyari south-eastern extension target. This increases the resource potential at the existing Minyari deposit and adds to the already substantial opportunity at GEO-01.

Results include 35 m at 3 g/t gold, 10 m at 3.6 g/t and 49 m at 1.5 g/t.

“The decision to expand the initial size and scope of drilling has delivered some fantastic outcomes with thick, near-surface high-grade gold mineralisation discovered at multiple target areas,” says MD Roger Mason.

The Phase 1 exploration drilling programme was designed to deliver a maiden mineral resource estimate at the GEO-01 discovery and to target new gold-copper discoveries within multiple high-priority target areas including three Pacman geophysical targets.

Phase 1 was originally scheduled for a total of 74 drill holes for 13 770 m, comprising 71 RC holes for 10 620 m and three diamond core drill holes for 3 150 m. Based on positive results from the first 19 RC holes, the initial programme was expanded to a total of 81 RC drill holes for 12 816 m.

Results from the programme not only serves to increase the resource potential at the existing Minyari deposit, but also facilitated the refinement of the geological model, enabling the company to generate new drill target locations.

Mason says Antipa is advancing work streams designed to deliver a GEO-1 maiden resource and an update to the existing Minayri resource later this month.

A Phase 2 drilling programme will start later this year.

Antipa’s share price jumped 10% to A$0.011 a share on Wednesday.

An August 2022 scoping study for Minyari Dome identified a potential stand-alone gold mining and processing operation, producing about 975 000 oz, with an average of 170 000 oz/y for the first five years, at an all-in sustaining cost of A$1 475/oz.