Amedeo Resources PLC (LON:AMED) has paid US$500,000 to acquire a 2.5% stake in producing Iranian copper miner Ganjine Kani Company.
As part of the deal, Amedea also has a 5-year option to buy a further 5% of GKC – based near the city of Mashhad – for US$2mln.
GKC has extracted around 1mln tonnes of ore from its three mines so far, averaging 0.9% copper.
The producing mine on its own is estimated to have at least 6.5mln tonnes of copper with a 0.9% average copper content, although this hasn’t been confirmed to international standards, Amedeo said.
GKC sells its copper concentrate into Asia, including the world’s largest copper consumer China.
MGR Resources, which trades and brokers iron ore and in which Amedeo has a 49% stake, will work with GKC to increase its supply of copper into the Asian markets.
Glen Lau, chief executive of Amedeo said: “We are pleased to have made this acquisition which will allow MGR to widen the commodities it trades and brokers and, at the same time, give MGR a captive supply of copper.”