IGO, Antipa join forces to explore Paterson province

Through the agreement, Antipa will manage a minimum of $4 million of exploration within two and a half years, with IGO to fund a further $26 million of exploration in six and a half years.

This will see IGO earn a 70 per cent joint venture interest, allowing it to free-carry Antipa through a feasibility study.

This will be the company’s third major farm-in agreement, having made similar deals with Rio Tinto in 2015 and Newcrest Mining earlier this year.

With three large mining companies working beside Antipa in the Paterson province, this validates the company’s efforts to build a strategic position in the promising region.

Antipa Minerals executive chairman Stephen Power said the company was delighted to welcome IGO as a shareholder and partner to progress its exploration in the Paterson province.

“Importantly, with a significant portion of our portfolio being the subject of earn-ins by Rio, Newcrest and now IGO, we are well positioned to focus on our highly prospective remaining 100 per cent owned ground,” Power said.

“We are now looking forward to continuing exploration on this ground, increasing our understanding around the existing resources and, at the appropriate time, considering potential development scenarios.”

IGO managing director Peter Bradford also expressed his excitement at the partnership.

“IGO is very pleased to be adding Antipa’s Paterson project to our portfolio of projects in the highly prospective Paterson copper-gold province,” Bradford said.

“IGO is also pleased to become a shareholder of Antipa, given Antipa’s outstanding pipeline of projects at various stages of exploration across the Paterson region.

“We look forward to working closely with Antipa to realise discovery success at the Paterson project over the next few years.”