Canadian mining company Condor Resources has reached an option and joint venture agreement with Teck Perú, a unit of Teck Resources, for its Cobreorco copper-gold project in Peru.  

The agreement includes multi-year investment and exploration with the aim of developing the site's potential. 

As per the agreed terms, Teck has an option to acquire a 55% interest in the project by investing $4m in exploration and making cash payments totalling $500,000 over a three-year period.  

Upon entering the agreement, an initial payment of $80,000 was made. The start of the term is contingent on securing the necessary permits for drilling. 

After Teck achieves the first option, Condor and Teck will establish a holding company to own the Cobreorco concessions.  

Teck will then have the opportunity to increase its stake to 75% by spending an additional $6m on exploration expenditures and $600,000 in cash payments over another three-year period. 

Condor Exploration vice-president Ever Marquez stated: “Condor is pleased to welcome Teck and their technical expertise to advance the exploration of our Cobreorco project towards a new discovery of critical and precious minerals.” 

Cobreorco is located in the province of Andahuaylas in Peru. Occupying 50km², the property contains occurrences of several porphyry and skarn-related copper and gold.  

This royalty-free property was acquired by staking and is wholly owned by the company. 

Condor stated that it was interested in the location due to exposed porphyry with intensive stockwork and alteration along with outcroppings of skarn-gossan with large magnetite-iron oxide and other calcsilicate minerals. These were mined on a limited scale historically.  

Last year in June, Condor's subsidiary applied for a primary environmental permit from the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines to start drilling at the property. The permit process is expected to take several months to conclude. 

The application covers up to 40 drill platforms over 4km².