Antares Metals Turns First Drills at Quinns Gold Prospects
Key Takeaways
- Antares Metals (ASX: AM5) has turned first drills at its 100%-owned Quinns Gold and Copper Project, launching a 1,500m maiden aircore programme across two priority gold prospects — Venture and Fennell — neither of which has ever been drill-tested.
- Fennell has returned rock chip results as high as 65.20 g/t Au, with multiple samples above 5 g/t Au, making it one of the highest-grade undrilled surface targets in AM5's portfolio.
- Venture is defined by a 600m × 250m gold-in-soil anomaly peaking at 1,570ppb Au, with historic Enterprise gold workings trending directly toward the anomaly — the AC programme tests whether bedrock mineralisation extends beneath shallow cover.
- The Quinns Project sits approximately 10km from Monument Mining's Burnakura Mill and ~50km from Westgold Resources' operating mills, providing a credible third-party processing pathway for any future development.
- AM5 controls 20km of Meekatharra greenstone belt strike that has not been systematically tested by modern exploration, with assay results from the current programme representing the most immediate market-moving catalyst for the stock.
Antares Metals turns first drills at Quinns, targeting two high-grade gold prospects
Antares Metals (ASX: AM5) has commenced a 1,500m maiden aircore (AC) drilling programme at its 100%-owned Quinns Gold and Copper Project in Western Australia, marking the first drill test of the company’s Meekatharra greenstone belt tenure. The programme targets two prospects, Venture and Fennell, both defined by high-grade surface geochemistry that has never previously been tested by drilling.
The Quinns Project covers 383km² of the Meekatharra greenstone belt, situated approximately 10km from Monument Mining’s Burnakura Mill and ~50km from multiple Westgold Resources’ operating mills. That proximity to established, third-party processing infrastructure is a material consideration for any potential future development pathway at Quinns.
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Two high-grade prospects, zero prior drill testing
The core investment proposition here is straightforward: two prospects with standout surface results, neither of which has ever had a drill hole put through it. This programme changes that.
Venture — tracing the Enterprise gold system beneath cover
Venture is defined by a 600m × 250m gold-in-soil anomaly located immediately south-east of the historic Enterprise gold prospect. The anomaly contains two higher-grade zones peaking at 1,570ppb Au and 500ppb Au.
Historic quartz veins mined at Enterprise have been identified trending south-east toward the anomaly. The AC holes at Venture are designed to test whether that soil anomaly reflects a bedrock extension of the Enterprise mineralised system beneath shallow cover — a hypothesis the company has never had the drill data to confirm or rule out, until now.
Fennell — high-grade BIF-hosted gold with standout rock chips
Fennell is a structurally controlled, banded iron formation (BIF)-hosted gold target characterised by shallow workings and quartz veins cutting through outcropping BIF. Banded iron formation refers to an ancient sedimentary rock type that frequently acts as a structural host for orogenic gold mineralisation.
Rock chip results from Fennell, released in May and August 2026, include:
- 65.20 g/t Au (QURK116)
- 16.63 g/t Au (QURK083)
- 8.77 g/t Au (QURK082)
- 15.93 g/t Au (QURK033)
- 5.30 g/t Au (QURK035)
The prospect has not previously been tested by drilling. AC drilling at Fennell is designed to test the down-dip and along-strike extent of the quartz and BIF-hosted structures beneath those high-grade surface results.
AM5 had previously confirmed high-grade gold across three Quinns drilling targets as maiden drilling approached, with soil anomalies and rock chip sampling collectively building the case for the Venture and Fennell drill programme now underway.
Terence Topping, Managing Director
“Getting drill rigs turning at Quinns is a milestone for this project. Venture and Fennell are two of the highest-priority gold targets we have generated in Western Australia, and this program gives us our first look at what sits beneath the surface at both. This is the first of several priority Quinns targets we plan to test, and I look forward to updating the market as results come in.”
Understanding orogenic gold — why the Meekatharra greenstone belt matters
Orogenic gold deposits form when deep crustal fluids, mobilised during periods of tectonic activity, migrate upward along fault and shear zone networks and deposit gold where pressure and chemistry change. The key takeaway: gold concentrates along structures, not randomly. That makes structural mapping and geochemistry powerful tools for finding it.
Greenstone belts — ancient volcanic and sedimentary sequences — are among the most historically productive gold hosts in Western Australia. The Murchison Province, where Quinns sits, has yielded significant gold discoveries following exactly this style of structural control.
AM5 controls 20km of Meekatharra greenstone belt strike, and gold mineralisation along that entire strike length has not been tested by modern, systematic exploration. That is a meaningful inventory of untested ground for a company of AM5’s size. The tenure consolidates the southern extent of the belt and comprises three granted exploration licences, four granted prospecting licences, four mining lease applications, and five exploration licence applications.
The company is re-examining the belt’s full historical dataset alongside new mapping, geochemistry, and geophysics, targeting areas of shallow cover that earlier explorers, working without today’s tools, left untested.
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What comes next for AM5 at Quinns and beyond
The near-term newsflow pipeline across AM5’s portfolio is active across two jurisdictions. The most immediate catalyst is assay results from the current programme, which will be released as received.
The company’s stated next steps are:
- Complete the 1,500m AC programme at Venture and Fennell and submit samples for assay — results to be released as received
- Expand soil sampling and geochemistry along the 20km of Meekatharra greenstone belt strike to generate the next round of drill targets
- Conduct geophysical programmes at Quinns to further define copper targets
- Advance follow-up exploration at the Conglomerate Creek and Cromwell copper discoveries at Mt Isa North (QLD)
The Conglomerate Creek copper-gold-silver target at Mt Isa North followed a similar maiden-drill milestone earlier in 2026, with high-grade surface rock chips defining the priority RC drill programme before a single hole had been turned.
For broader context, here is a snapshot of AM5’s current project portfolio:
| Project | Location | Key Attributes |
|---|---|---|
| Quinns Gold and Copper Project | Meekatharra, Western Australia | 383km² in the Meekatharra greenstone belt; ~10km from Burnakura Mill; Venture and Fennell gold prospects; VMS copper-zinc potential |
| Mt Isa North Copper-Uranium Project | Northwest Queensland | 1,937km² in the Mt Isa district; multiple copper and uranium prospects; Conglomerate Creek and Cromwell copper discoveries |
| Katanning Gold Project | Southern Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia | 306km²; immediately along strike of Ausgold’s Katanning Gold Project |
For investors tracking AM5, the assay results from Venture and Fennell represent the most immediate market-moving newsflow. Both prospects carry compelling surface geochemistry and neither has been drilled before, meaning this programme delivers genuinely new information about what sits beneath the Quinns gold system. Alongside ongoing work at Mt Isa North, the company has multiple near-term catalysts across two jurisdictions to watch.
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