07:22 AM EDT, 10/08/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Marimaca Copper ( MARIF ) on Tuesday said it signed a binding five-year option agreement to acquire the Pampa Medina project in Chile from SCM Elenita for US$12 million cash.

Marimaca will pay for the acquisition in increasingly bigger yearly installments over the life of the option agreement. SCM Elenita will retain a 1.5% net smelter royalty, 1% of which may be bought back by Marimaca Copper ( MARIF ). About 41,000m of historical drilling data at the site was inherited via the agreement.

The Pampa Medina project consists of four mining concessions totaling 144 hectares and is within the southern portion of Marimaca's 14,500ha Sierra de Medina property package. It is also near the company's planned processing infrastructure outlined in the Marimaca Oxide Deposit Definitive Feasibility Study.

"This acquisition aligns with our strategy to grow our base of leachable copper resources to complement the MOD, to underpin mine life growth and, perhaps more importantly, support our goal of increasing our scale of production target to more than 50,000 tonnes of copper cathode per annum," said Marimaca President & CEO Hayden Locke.