The agreement follows a memorandum of understanding the companies signed in July.
The agreement would allow Hudbay to explore its large Flin Flon land package to potentially bring another mine into production and utilize its idle processing infrastructure in the region, Hudbay CEO Peter Kukielski said.
Canada is home to a large mining sector for minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt and has been wooing firms involved in all levels of the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain.
However, it has also tightened foreign investment rules for the critical minerals sector over national security concerns and had forced three Chinese investors to sell their stakes in Canadian mineral companies in 2022.
($1 = 1.3486 Canadian dollars)
(By Sourasis Bose; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
