MINING giant Rio Tinto announces and agreed to invest up to $60 million on exploration in junior miner Antipa Minerals' Citadel gold and copper project in Western Australia.
Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational metals and mining corporation with headquarters in London, United Kingdom, and a management office in Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain, from the Spanish government.
Under the farm-in agreement between the two companies, Rio will progressively increase its stake in the joint venture up to 75 per cent interest.
The Citadel project is located 75 kilometres north of gold miner Newcrest Mining's Telfer mine in WA's Paterson province.
Shares in Antipa Minerals soared today after it announced a $60 million earn-in agreement with mining giant Rio Tinto over the explorer’s Citadel gold/copper project in the Pilbara.
Under the terms of the deal, Rio can earn as much as 75 per cent interest in the project near Newcrest’s Telfer mine by spending up to $60 million in exploration in stages over 10 years.
As part of the initial $3 million expenditure commitment within 18 months, Rio will pay for follow-up drilling at Antipa’s Calibre gold-copper-silver-tungsten discovery during this calendar year.
Antipa managing director Roger Mason said Rio’s interest was a strong endorsement of the company’s exploration achievements to date and the quality of the asset itself.
“We are particularly excited with the technical input which will be available from one of the world’s largest and most successful mining and exploration companies,” he said.
“We believe that Rio Tinto’s involvement will add significantly to the prospects of developing a successful mining operation within the Citadel Project area.”
Antipa will retain 100 per cent ownership of its separate North Telfer and Patersons projects to the south of Citadel.
The company separately announced a $550,000 placement to fund exploration at these projects, as well as the Telfer Dome project.
Antipa shares were up 1.7 cents, or 212.5 per cent, to 2.5 cents at the close.
Rio Tinto Group is a dual-listed company traded on both the London Stock Exchange where it is a component of the FTSE 100 Index[9] and the Australian Securities Exchange where it is a component of the S&P/ASX 200 index.
Our 60,000 people work in more than 40 countries across six continents. they are strongly represented in Australia and North America, and also have significant businesses in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.
