Antipa’s Fiama lode discovery: design and pit optimisation notes for mine planners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Antipa Minerals has reported a major discovery at its Minyari gold–copper project in Western Australia, with drilling at the newly defined Fiama lode returning multiple high‑grade gold intercepts. The lode sits within the Paterson Province, where existing deposits such as Minyari and WACA already host significant near‑surface sulphide mineralisation amenable to open‑pit and potential underground development. The discovery points to further resource growth potential around existing infrastructure, with implications for pit shell optimisation, underground access design and future processing plant sizing.
Technical Brief
- New intercepts are expected to feed into an updated geological model and revised resource estimate for Minyari.
- Additional step-out drilling is planned to define Fiama’s strike extent, dip continuity and plunge controls.
- Structural interpretation of Fiama will influence future drill orientation, stope geometry and ground support concepts.
- For similar brownfields mining hubs, such satellite lodes can materially improve project NPV without standalone infrastructure.
Our Take
Within our 903 Mining stories, Western Australia gold–copper projects like Antipa Minerals’ Minyari feature far less frequently than single-commodity gold plays, signalling that genuine polymetallic discoveries in the state are still relatively scarce in reported project pipelines.
Among the 449 keyword-matched gold and copper pieces, most Australian coverage centres on larger-cap operators, so Antipa’s prominence here suggests juniors with credible WA gold–copper systems are starting to attract more attention from both majors and financiers scouting for growth options.
Projects-tagged items in our database that combine gold and copper in Australia often progress towards either toll-treatment deals or JV-style development, implying that any sustained exploration success at Minyari could position Antipa as a logical partner target rather than a sole developer.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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