The deal grants Teck’s subsidiary Teck Chile options to earn up to a 75% interest in Loreto by providing Golden Rim with $600,000 in staged cash payments. The Vancouver-based miner will also have to spend $17 million on exploration.
“Golden Rim believes that Loreto could well represent the last unexplored outcropping Oligocene-Eocene porphyry system in northern Chile,” managing director Craig Mackay said in the statement.
The company noted that mineral concessions at its adjacent Paguanta project are not included in the agreement, adding it was pursuing an alternative deal for the asset.
Teck is currently expanding its Quebrada Blanca mine in Chile. The project, dubbed Quebrada Blanca Phase 2 (QB2), is slated to begin operations in the second half of the year,
