Bullion miner McEwen Mining on Tuesday announced the creation of McEwen Copper, which would own the Los Azules copper project in Argentina, and the Elder Creek exploration property, in Nevada.

Chairperson and chief owner Rob McEwen said a separately listed, copper-focused company would be an attractive investment vehicle and should release significant value.

“Currently, the market appears to be giving us little value for our Los Azules copper deposit, despite its impressive size and robust economics at present copper prices. Unfortunately, the scale of the required project development expenditures would require McEwen Mining to issue a massive number of additional shares. This share dilution would not be acceptable,” he said in a statement.

McEwen Copper would be taken public within 12 months of the closing of an $80-million offering, also announced on Tuesday.

Up to eight-million common shares of McEwen Copper would be placed at $10 each. McEwen Copper currently has 17.5-million common shares outstanding.

Rob McEwen committed to a lead order to purchase 50% of the offering. His investment corporation, Evanachan, would take four-million common shares of McEwen Copper for $40-million and would close on this portion of the offering immediately.

Subscription for the remaining four-million common shares was open to qualified accredited investors, subject to a $2-million minimum investment and certain other conditions.

Assuming completion of the full amount of the offering, McEwen Mining would be the controlling shareholder and own 68.6% of McEwen Copper. The new investors, including Rob McEwen, would own 31.4%.

The company would be investigating ways to make a share distribution to McEwen Mining shareowners of a portion of McEwen Mining’s holdings of the new copper venture.

McEwen Copper would use proceeds of the offering to advance the Los Azules project to a prefeasibility study, for the construction of a new year-round access road to the project, exploration drilling at Los Azules and Elder Creek, environmental permitting and community relations, and general corporate purposes.

Los Azules is an advanced large-scale porphyry copper exploration project located in the prolific Andean Cordillera copper belt, 90 km north of Glencore’s El Pachón project and near the border with Chile.

Elder Creek is an early-stage copper/gold porphyry exploration project located in northern Nevada, 9 km from SSR Mining’s Marigold Mine Complex.