PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Australian Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) has approved a farm-in and joint venture (JV) agreement between Australian explorer Venus Resources and China’s HD Mining & Investment, a subsidiary of Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources (SDGM).

The farm-in and JV agreements have also received the necessary Chinese regulatory approval.

Venus has now received A$4-million from HD Mining and has issued two-million fully paid ordinary shares at A$2 a share to the Chinese company in accordance with the terms of the subscription agreement.

Under the proposed farm-in agreement, HD Mining would spend A$8-million over a period of two years, at the rate of $4-million a year, in order to earn a 50% interest in the Venus’ Yalgoo iron-ore exploration tenements, in Western Australia.

Venus would retain the rights in all minerals other than iron-ore, except where any other minerals were discovered in association with iron-ore mineralisation.

Venus would be the manager of all exploration during the sole funding period and upon HD Mining earning either a 25% interest or a 50% interest a JV would be formed.