Antipa Minerals (AZY.AX) has released an updated resource calculation for its Minyari project in Western Australia. The current resource now contains 2.9 million ounces of gold, 880,000 ounces of silver and about 200 million pounds of copper. The average grade of the resource comes in at 1.54 g/t gold and 0.17% copper with some lower copper and cobalt values. And while the cobalt grade appears low, the 13,000 tonnes of in situ cobalt definitely has value as well.
As a reminder, the October 2024 scoping study that was completed on the Minyari project outlined an average annual free cash flow of A$301M per year at a gold price of around A$5,000/oz. The initial capex was estimated at A$306M, while the annual production of 130,000 ounces of gold per year in the first 10 years was estimated to have an AISC of just around A$1750/oz. The NPV7% after-tax at A$4000 gold was A$1.2B with an anticipated IRR of almost 80% on an after-tax basis.
This was based on a total resource of 1.5 million ounces of gold, which has now increased by in excess of 60%. The larger resource, in combination with higher commodity prices, should have a positive impact on the economics of the project, despite taking a higher capex and opex into consideration.
Disclosure: The author has no position in Antipa Minerals. This post is for educational purposes only; be mindful investing in junior mining stocks is risky and you may lose your entire investment if things go wrong. Please read the disclaimer.
