VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Vancouver-based exploration junior Amarc Resources has agreed to option its Joy copper/gold project to Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals, the company announced last week.

The deal is structured like one Hudbay entered into with Amarc on the Ike copper/molybdenum property last month.

Under the first stage of the accord, Hudbay gained the right to earn a 49% interest in the Joy property, located 25 km north of AuRico Metals’ Kemess South mine project, by making staged payments totalling C$15-million before December 31, 2020. Hudbay will have to make an initial payment of C$1.9-million for 2017.

Stage two enables Hudbay to earn a further 1%, if the accumulated spending to the end of 2020 totals C$20-million. Amarc will be the operator during stages one and two.

The farm-in agreement also contains a provision to form a joint venture when Hudbay has acquired a 49% interest. Alternatively, should Hudbay earn its 50% interest, it can become operator of the project and earn an extra 10%, bringing its interest to 60%.

Earlier prospectors took surface samples from the Joy property, but no drilling has been done. Amarc believes that the targets at Joy are the northern extension of the Kemess porphyry copper/gold district.

Historical soil and rock sampling along with a recent soil survey, has revealed a regionally significant, 9 km² copper, gold, molybdenum, silver and zinc geochemical anomaly, which potentially reflects a large and shallowly buried, copper/gold porphyry deposit.

“We believe that Joy has the potential to be a significant, new copper/gold camp in northern British Columbia, and an important extension to the Kemess district. Having secured the required permits, our crews have mobilised to the field to undertake a comprehensive exploration programme, including drilling, to assess the substantive porphyry copper/gold deposit targets,” stated Amarc president Diane Nicolson in a news release.