PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Oz Minerals and junior Red Metal have established an exploration alliance to fast-track greenfield discoveries.

The new alliance provides Oz Minerals a two-year option to fund a series of mutually-agreed upon, proof-of-concept work programmes on six of Red Metal’s early stage projects, including the Yarrie copper/gold and the Nullarbord copper/gold and copper/nickel assets in Western Australia, and the Gulf and Three Ways base metals projects in Queensland.

Under the agreement, Oz Minerals has committed to spend a total of A$8.05-million on the project areas over a two-year period, with a minimum amount set at each project.

The company can earn between 51% and 70% of a project.

“This alliance is borne from the experience the companies have gained working together on the Punt Hill project near the Carrapateena copper project, currently in construction in South Australia,” said Oz Minerals head of exploration and growth, Richard Holmes.

“The projects selected for the alliance offer a rare opportunity to gain access to large land holdings in terrains with significant mineral endowment and frontier terrains with low-cost programmes to test new concepts. Many of these areas are under cover and enable Oz Minerals to provide its technical expertise for exploring under cover to support our partner.”

Red Metal told shareholders that the discovery alliance with Oz Minerals set a new standard for the effective collaboration of a growth-orientated major Australian mining group with an expert junior exploration company well recognised for its ability to generate promising greenfield initiatives.

Exploration under the alliance will start early in the 2019 field season with high-resolution gravity surveys on Nullarbor and Lawn Hill, followed by proof-of-concept drilling at Mount Skipper, Gulf and Nullarbor.

Work programmes on the Yarrie and Three Ways projects are pending the grant of the tenements, which is expected in 2019.