(Reuters) – Mining conglomerate BHP has taken a right to acquire a 75% stake in Australia’s Cobre’s Kitlanya projects in Botswana in exchange for $25 million in funding for exploration activities, the copper explorer said on Monday.
The deal follows Cobre’s selection in BHP’s Xplor program in January last year in which the smaller rival received $500,000 to accelerate exploration plans in its Kalahari copper projects in the African nation.
The agreement sees at least $5 million of committed funding to be paid to Cobre within two years of its commencement date, with a planned budget of $7 million for exploration expenditure starting next month.
“The partnership with BHP will provide us with the funding and support necessary to implement a technology-driven work programme designed to discover the Tier 1 deposits we believe may be hosted in our Kitlanya East and West projects,” Cobre Chief Executive Adam Woolridge said.
(Reporting by Nikita Maria Jino in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft and Sandra Maler)
