(Alliance News) - Tertiary Minerals PLC surged on Thursday after it said it has signed a technical cooperation agreement with First Quantum Minerals Ltd to "turbo-charge" two of its copper exploration projects in Zambia.
Shares in the Macclesfield, England-based mineral exploration and development company surged 68% to 0.18 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
The agreements covers Tertiary's Mukai and Mushima North projects.
The Mukai project exploration licence is located in Zambia's north-western province. It is directly adjacent to First Quantum's Trident project which includes its sentinel copper mine and the recently opened nickel mine, Tertiary noted.
The Mushima North exploration licence, in the Kasempa district, is also in an active exploration area for First Quantum.
Together, Tertiary and First Quantum will set up a technical committee. Tertiary said the objective of the committee is to work collaboratively to advance and develop the two projects.
It will also advise and assist Tertiary on the project's technical matters, it added.
Further, under the agreement, First Quantum will provide Tertiary with all of its historical exploration data for the two licence areas and Tertiary will submit its exploration results to the technical committee on an ongoing basis.
However, Tertiary noted that the contract does not bind either company to any further agreement or give First Quantum any first rights of refusal.
Chair Patrick Cheetham said: "This agreement will turbo-charge Tertiary's Zambian exploration in these two key licence areas. We are set to benefit from FQM's extensive and in-depth country experience, gained over many years of exploration and mine development in Zambia and, importantly, its site-specific historical exploration in and around these two exciting projects.
"For Tertiary, the agreement will effectively harness the expertise of one of the world's largest copper producers without the associated cost, and in return FQM will gain first-hand knowledge of any new discoveries that we make, and will be in pole position, should we seek an exploration or development partner in future."
By Sophie Rose; sophierose@alliancenews.com
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