Antipa Minerals Selects Dual Gold-Copper Process Path Ahead of November PFS
Key Takeaways
- Antipa Minerals has selected CIL gold doré production followed by copper flotation as the preferred processing configuration for Minyari Dome, chosen for delivering the strongest overall project economics across NPV, IRR, and payback metrics.
- The option studies represent the final major technical workstream before OPEX and CAPEX are locked in, with the PFS now expected during November 2026.
- Minyari Dome hosts a 2.5 Moz gold Mineral Resource at 1.5 g/t plus copper, silver, and cobalt, with the broader Antipa Paterson Province tenement package totalling 2.9 Moz gold and 91,000 t copper across 68 Mt of material.
- The dual-product pathway positions Minyari to generate revenue from both gold doré and copper concentrate, reducing reliance on a single commodity price and broadening the project's economic resilience.
- The project sits in the Paterson Province alongside Telfer (8 Moz Au), Winu (7.9 Moz Au), and Havieron (7 Moz Au), reinforcing the geological calibre of the address.
Minyari PFS reaches key technical milestone as preferred development configuration selected
Antipa Minerals (ASX: AZY) has completed its processing and mine scheduling option studies for the Minyari Dome Gold-Copper Development Project, selecting the preferred development configuration ahead of Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) finalisation. The PFS is now expected during November 2026.
The 100%-owned project sits within Western Australia’s Paterson Province, a region that also hosts Greatland Resources’ Telfer mine, Rio Tinto-Sumitomo’s Winu project, and Greatland’s Havieron development. The option studies represent the final major technical workstream before OPEX and CAPEX are locked in and the economic model is completed.
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What the option studies determined
Antipa assessed five distinct processing configurations and completed detailed mine scheduling work before settling on the preferred pathway. The outputs from both workstreams now feed directly into the finalisation of operating and capital costs and the project’s economic model.
Five processing options were assessed:
- CIL only, producing gold doré with no copper recovery
- Gravity and CIL, producing gold doré with no copper recovery
- Copper concentrator only, producing copper concentrate containing gold
- CIL followed by copper flotation, producing gold doré and a separate copper concentrate (selected)
- Gravity and CIL followed by copper flotation, producing gold doré and a separate copper concentrate
The selected pathway, CIL gold doré production followed by flotation of the primary (sulphide) ore CIL residue to produce a separate copper concentrate, was chosen because it delivered the strongest overall project economics rather than simply maximising recovery of any single metal.
Following the processing option studies, mine scheduling studies evaluated options to access higher-grade ore earlier, reduce pre-production waste movement, optimise capital deployment, and shorten project payback. The work also assessed the timing and integration of underground mining opportunities, as well as the optimal sequencing of oxide, transitional, and sulphide material through the selected processing flowsheet.
Roger Mason, Managing Director and CEO
“…We were optimising the strongest possible combination of NPV, IRR, payback and overall project robustness. We are excited about the option selected, even though it will require a bit of extra time to update the processing, scheduling and economic model for this option.”
What is a pre-feasibility study, and why do the option studies matter?
A Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) is a structured technical and economic assessment that sits between an early-stage scoping study and a full feasibility study. Its purpose is to determine whether a mining project is viable enough to justify the significant capital required for detailed project engineering.
Antipa completed an updated Scoping Study for Minyari Dome in October 2024, which confirmed the potential for a substantial standalone development opportunity. The PFS builds on that foundation with far greater technical rigour and specificity.
At the PFS stage, the processing configuration is particularly important. It is the technical foundation upon which all cost estimates, revenue projections, and economic outputs are built. Changing the processing route after the fact would require reworking almost every major input.
CIL, or carbon-in-leach, is a widely used gold processing method where gold is dissolved using cyanide and then adsorbed onto activated carbon, producing gold doré (a semi-pure gold alloy). Copper flotation is a separate process that uses chemical reagents and air bubbles to separate copper sulphide minerals into a marketable copper concentrate.
For investors, the option studies were not a setback. They were a deliberate value optimisation exercise, designed to ensure the development blueprint selected is the one that best balances returns, capital efficiency, and project resilience before those parameters are locked in.
Minyari’s resource base and the road to PFS completion
Minyari Dome currently hosts a 2.5 Moz gold Mineral Resource at 1.5 g/t plus copper, silver, and cobalt (April 2026). At the project level, the total Mineral Resource Estimate across Antipa’s 4,500 km² Paterson Province tenement stands at 2.9 Moz gold, 91,000 t copper, 880 koz silver, and 13,000 t cobalt, across 68 Mt of material.
The table below shows the project-level summary figures drawn from the MRE table in the announcement.
| Resource Category | Tonnes (Mt) | Au Grade (g/t) | Au Ounces | Cu Tonnes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minyari Dome Total Indicated | 42 | 1.61 | 2,200,000 | 77,000 |
| Minyari Dome Total Inferred | 9 | — | — | — |
| Minyari Dome Total MRE | 51 | — | 2,500,000* | 87,000* |
| Minyari Project Grand Total (Indicated + Inferred) | 68 | 1.33 | 2,900,000 | 91,000 |
Minyari Dome deposit-level totals for Au oz and Cu t sourced from the “About Antipa Minerals” section of the announcement (2.5 Moz Au, 87 kt Cu); grand total row sourced directly from the MRE summary table.
The Paterson Province context reinforces the calibre of the address. Winu hosts 7.9 Moz gold and 2.9 Mt copper; Telfer holds 8 Moz gold and 370 kt copper; Havieron carries 7 Moz gold and 275 kt copper. Minyari is being developed within established, world-class company.
Next steps to PFS completion:
- Finalise OPEX and CAPEX for the selected processing configuration
- Complete the detailed mine schedule
- Incorporate all inputs into the final project economic model
- Release the PFS, expected during November 2026
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Why the extra time signals discipline, not delay
The revised November 2026 PFS timeline reflects the scope of work management chose to complete before locking in the development configuration, not a sign of project difficulty. The October 2024 Scoping Study had already confirmed standalone development potential; the option studies were the next logical step to ensure that potential is realised on the strongest possible terms.
The selected dual-product pathway, gold doré plus copper concentrate, positions Minyari to benefit from both gold and copper market conditions rather than relying on a single revenue stream. Management explicitly framed the exercise as optimising NPV, IRR, capital efficiency, and payback before committing.
A strong PFS outcome in November 2026 would represent a material step forward in Minyari’s development trajectory, providing the technical and economic foundation needed to progress the project toward the next stage of evaluation.
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