Canadian junior Luminex Resources on Monday announced the signing of a formal earn-in and joint venture (JV) agreement with a wholly-owned subsidiary of BHP, which would earn into two mining concessions in Ecuador.
Ultimately, the major will have the right to earn a 70% interest in a JV company holding Luminex’s Tarqui and Tarqui 2 mining concessions. BHP will act as manager and operator of the JV.
BHP has the right to earn a 51% ownership interest in a JV company, which will hold the mining concessions by spending $25-million in exploration expenditures and making a cash payment of $2.4-million over four years.
The major will then have the right to earn an additional 9% ownership interest in the JV company by sole funding an additional $10-million of expenditures at the property and making a further $4.6-million of cash payments over another two-year period, increasing its aggregate ownership to 60%.
BHP will have the right to earn a further 10% ownership interest in the JV company by sole funding an additional $40-million of expenditures at the property, taking BHP’s aggregate ownership to 70%.
The companies announced a non-binding letter of intent in March this year.