Antares Metals Locks in 90% of Historic Enterprise Gold Mine, Drilling Next
Key Takeaways
- Antares can earn 90% of the Enterprise gold mine (M51/19) for $50,000 cash, 20,000,000 shares at $0.005 and $200,000 of exploration within two years, with CNN free carried at 10% to production.
- Enterprise reportedly produced 865.41 ounces at 19.3 g/t Au between 1897 and 1917, though the figure is historical and not JORC-compliant.
- Earlier drilling by Saint Barbara and Silver Swan returned intercepts including 9m @ 4.68 g/t Au from 28m, and only the northern part of the tenement was tested.
- The deal takes Quinns to four drill targets, and a 2,500m air core program will test Enterprise, Venture and Fennell, with maiden drilling in the Mining Lease being fast-tracked.
- Completion needs the Minister's consent and the caveator's consent, and the share issue needs shareholder approval at the November 2026 AGM, failing which Antares pays $100,000 in cash.
Antares Metals secures earn-in rights over the Enterprise gold mine at Quinns
Antares Metals (ASX: AM5) has agreed to acquire a 90% legal and beneficial interest in Mining Lease M51/19, which hosts the historic Enterprise gold mine, by way of an earn-in and joint venture agreement with CNN Investments Pty Ltd (CNN). The deal takes the Quinns drill target count to four: Enterprise, Fennell, Finlay and Venture.
M51/19 adjoins the Company’s tenements E51/1853 and E51/1960, consolidating its holding over the Quinns goldfield. For you as an investor, that means a historic mine now sits inside a single, connected land package.
Terence Topping, Managing Director
“This is an important strategic agreement for Antares… Adding Enterprise gives us a fourth priority target at Quinns and reinforces our conviction that this belt has been left substantially untested by modern gold exploration”.
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What must Antares deliver under the earn-in terms?
Under the Earn-in Agreement, the Company will earn the 90% interest by completing three steps:
- Paying CNN $50,000 in cash.
- Issuing CNN 20,000,000 fully paid ordinary shares (Consideration Shares) at a deemed issue price of $0.005.
- Incurring $200,000 of exploration expenditure on the tenement within two years.
The Consideration Shares have not been issued. Their issue is subject to shareholder approval under ASX Listing Rule 7.1, which the Company will seek at its Annual General Meeting in November 2026. If approval is not obtained, the Company will instead pay CNN $100,000 in cash.
Title to the 90% interest transfers on completion, after the exploration expenditure has been incurred and the conditions to completion are satisfied. Those conditions include the Minister’s consent under the Mining Act 1978 (WA) and the consent of the caveator.
CNN will retain a 10% interest, free carried by the Company to production. CNN is a separate and unrelated third party.
The structure is worth noting: the exploration commitment is tied to work on the tenement itself, rather than being a large upfront payment.
What are the historic grades and drill results at Enterprise?
The Enterprise gold mine is reported to have produced 1,389.5 tons for 865.41 ounces of gold, at an average recovered grade of 0.62 ounces per ton (19.3 g/t Au), between 1897 and 1917.
That figure comes from public historical records and is not reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012). It is provided only as an indication of the mineralisation style and tenor in the district, and it is not a resource.
The historic workings have previously been drilled by Saint Barbara Mines Ltd and Silver Swan Group. That reverse circulation (RC) drilling returned shallow, high-grade intercepts, which are historical results and not Antares’ own:
| Hole | Intercept | Depth from |
|---|---|---|
| QN4 | 9m @ 4.68 g/t Au | 28m |
| QN7 | 7m @ 2.88 g/t Au | 27m |
| QN1 | 4m @ 3.21 g/t Au | Surface |
| QN9 | 7m @ 2.59 g/t Au | Surface |
| NW0002 | 9m @ 3.18 g/t Au | Surface |
That earlier drilling focused on the northern portion of the tenement, with the southern area open for additional air core drilling.
Why is Quinns considered untested for gold?
Previous operators predominately targeted volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) copper-zinc mineralisation. The Company says this left the orogenic gold potential effectively untested.
What is orogenic gold?
Orogenic gold is gold deposited along structural traps within a greenstone belt. At Fennell, the BIF-hosted (banded iron formation) structural setting is described as consistent with orogenic gold mineralisation typical of the Murchison Province, with mineralised quartz veins intersecting the BIF.
Why does it matter here?
AM5’s 383km² tenure covers 20km of the Meekatharra greenstone belt strike that the Company says has not been tested with modern gold-focused exploration. Two nearby targets show where the work is focused:
- Venture: measures 600m by 250m, defined by a 10ppb gold anomaly, with two higher-grade zones peaking at 1,570 ppb and 500 ppb gold. It lies southeast and along strike of Enterprise.
- Fennell: located 1.6km northwest of the Enterprise workings, with rock chip samples including 65.20 g/t Au, 16.63 g/t Au, 8.77 g/t Au and 4.38 g/t Au. The mineralised area has expanded to 250m by 150m.
These rock chip results were first reported in the Company’s 17 August 2026 announcement.
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What happens next, and how close is processing infrastructure?
The current air core drilling program has been expanded to 2,500m. It is planned to test the Enterprise gold mineralisation, the Venture soil anomaly, and the high-grade quartz veins and BIF-hosted structures at Fennell.
Other planned work includes:
- Expanded soil sampling along the 20km of belt strike to generate the next round of drill targets.
- Further geophysics at Quinns to further define copper exploration targets.
- Follow-up exploration at the Conglomerate Creek and Cromwell copper discoveries at Mt Isa North (QLD).
The Quinns Project sits approximately 10km from Monument Mining’s Burnakura Mill and 50km from multiple Westgold Resources operating mills. The Company describes proximity to established, third-party processing capacity as a material consideration for any potential future development pathway. The announcement does not describe any processing agreement.
The near-term catalyst is maiden drilling within the Mining Lease area, which AM5 says it is fast-tracking.
For readers wanting to follow the drilling program in more depth, our detailed coverage of Antares maiden drilling at Quinns explains how the aircore campaign is testing Venture and Fennell and what the first assay results could mean for the stock.
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