RE: Plenty of Paterson action as Greatland Gold moves in, Rio Tinto sells off, and IGO digs up - The West Australian17 Dec 2024 07:33
It comes amid a renewed focus on the Paterson province spurred in recent months by Greatland Gold’s purchase of the region’s famed Telfer gold mine, pictured.Credit:Newmont/Newmont
Battery metals miner IGO has firmed up its stake in a copper exploration patch in WA’s bustling Paterson region in the Pilbara, where red and yellow metals are all the rage.
It was revealed to investors on Monday that IGO had earned a 70 per cent stake in Encounter Resources’ Yeneena copper project after pouring some $15 million worth of exploration dollars into the site since 2020, in the hope of hitting paydirt.
It comes amid a renewed focus on the Paterson province — located in the north east of the Pilbara — spurred in recent months by Greatland Gold’s purchase of the region’s famed Telfer gold mine, and Rio Tinto’s move to flog part of the Winu copper project nearby.
Mid-tier IGO — which has been hard hit by the lithium and nickel downturn — affirmed in a recent strategy update that it viewed copper as having “strong fundamentals”, crucial to the energy transition, and a key commodity for the company going forward.
In the same report it indicated there was plenty of competition to secure copper assets, and that coming across a deal would be made harder by a lack of discoveries.
IGO has another foothold in the region via a farm-in arrangement with listed explorer Antipa Minerals for the aptly-named Paterson project, a gold-copper patch in the early exploration stages.
Antipa’s flagship asset is the gold-copper Minyari Dome, also in the province. The explorer has a farm-in deal for its Wilki exploration tenements, which is about 9 kilometres away from the Havieron gold-copper discovery, with owner Greatland Gold.
The combination of these factors has prompted speculation from some corners of the market about Greatland’s appetite for a deal.
Because Greatland would own about 8 per cent in Antipa through its handover from Newmont, Euroz Hartleys analyst Michael Scantlebury reckons the new Telfer owner might look to an acquisition when it lists on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2025.
“Telfer, for the first time in decades, has a company who is incentivised to grow and improve the asset in Greatland Gold. We believe Greatland is highly likely to consolidate the region,” he said in a note on Monday.
Greatland has a fair bit on its plate until then, including preparing for the listing and settling in at the operation.
To add more elements to the equation, Greatland has a farm-in and joint venture arrangement with Rio Tinto’s exploration subsidiary for 1500 square kilometres of ground south of Telfer and Havieron.
Rio has also had the Winu copper project in the province since 2017 but there has been slow progress on making a mine out of the discovery since then.
A pre-feasibility study for the project will be based on an initial processing capacity of up to 10 million tonnes a year and is
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