Base metals junior Solaris Copper, which was recently spun out of Equinox Gold, reported on Thursday that US miner Freeport McMoRan would earn up to 80% in its early stage Ricardo property, in Chile.
Freeport would be required to incur gross expenditures of $130-million or $30-million plus the delivery of a feasibility study for a mine at Ricardo to earn its interest.
“Exploration at the prospective Ricardo property will be significantly enhanced by the technical and financial capacity of Freeport,” commented Solaris CEO Greg Smith.
The Ricardo property consists of about 14 000 ha strategically located along the West Fissure fault in Chile, 25 km south of Codelco’s Chuquicamata mine, which is one of the largest copper mines in the world.
Smith added that partnering with Freeport in advancing the Ricardo property would allow Solaris to focus on its flagship Warintza project in Ecuador.
Warintza is a porphyry copper/molybdenum project located in south-eastern Ecuador in a corridor of mineralisation that is known to host numerous exploration- and development-stage projects with copper, copper/gold, copper/molybdenum and high-grade gold mineralisation.
The current mineral resource estimate outlines 195-million tonnes of inferred resources grading 0.42% copper and 0.03% molybdenum, for 1.808-billion pounds of copper and 132.3-million pounds of molybdenum, and a copper-equivalent grade of 0.61%.