Antipa’s Minyari drilling update: resource and pit design notes for mine planners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Antipa Minerals has expanded the Minyari gold–copper project resource in Western Australia through new drilling, increasing both scale and exploration upside at the Archean Paterson Province site. Recent holes have extended mineralisation along strike and at depth around the Minyari and WACA deposits, with step-out drilling confirming continuity of high-grade zones in both gold and copper. The updated resource supports further infill and extensional drilling, with implications for pit shell optimisation, underground potential and future processing plant sizing.
Technical Brief
- Resource base at Minyari now reported as “grown to” a larger tonnage and contained metal inventory.
- Antipa notes additional “upside” from multiple satellite targets surrounding the current Minyari–WACA resource envelope.
- Step-out drilling has been directed along both strike directions and down-dip from existing pit shells.
- Company commentary points to potential re-optimisation of open-pit shells using the larger resource base.
- Underground mining scenarios are being flagged as more credible given the extended high-grade shoots at depth.
- Processing plant sizing is now being reconsidered to accommodate higher potential throughput and metal output.
- For similar Archean gold–copper systems, the case underlines the value of systematic step-out drilling beyond initial pit limits.
Our Take
Across our coverage, Minyari has shifted from an updated JORC resource (Dec 2025) into active pre‑feasibility work and then a major drilling push in early 2026, signalling Antipa Minerals is steadily de‑risking the gold–copper asset towards a standalone development decision rather than a pure exploration play.
Gold–copper projects like Minyari are a relatively small subset within the 1215 Mining stories in our database, but they feature disproportionately in recent ‘Projects’ coverage, indicating that polymetallic gold–copper systems are currently a key focus for Australian development pipelines.
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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