AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) has expanded its partnership with junior explorer Kincora Copper (ASX:KCC) to include a second major joint venture on the Northern Junee-Narromine Belt (NJNB) Project in New South Wales.
The US$21 billion ($33.4 billion) miner has now committed to spending up to $100 million on Kincora’s NJNB Project in the Macquarie Arc of the Lachlan Fold Belt – up from the initial $50 million buy-in announced for the first deal in May last year.
The separate joint venture is a multi-phase, multi-year deal that covers the Nyngan South, Nevertire South and Mulla projects.
These projects sit adjacent to the Nyngan and Nevertire projects that were the focus of the May 2024 agreement.
AngloGold can earn up to a 70% stake in the additional three projects during stage one by spending $25 million within seven years.
The miner can then increase that to 80% in the second stage by spending an additional $25 million or completing a Prefeasibility Study within a further three years.
Kincora will remain operator of the partnership, receiving a 10% management fee in exchange.
This latest agreement takes the total potential asset-level funding locked down by Kincora to over $110 million – which Technical Committee Chair John Holliday says puts the company on track to support a self-funding financing exploration model from third-party management fees.
Kincora has adopted a ‘project generator model’ – a strategy widely used in Canada that provides juniors leverage to exploration success with the right partner and deal structure.
Besides AngloGold, the company also has partnerships with Fleet Space Technologies, Earth AI and Orbminco (ASX:OB1).
Kincora is also advancing talks for further large-scale partner agreements.
“While Kincora has now unlocked over $110 million of potential partner funding we see ample scope to further significantly grow this figure,” Holliday says.
The two joint ventures with AngloGold now cover five projects in the Macquarie Arc and over 100km of continuous strike, which is more than twice that of the emerging Vicuña district in the Central Andes – also an extension to a known major porphyry belt.
This expanded partnership comes close on the heels of AngloGold’s commitment to phase-two exploration at four of Inflection Resources’ (CSE:AUCU) copper-gold projects after spending an initial $10 million on exploration in the Macquarie Arc.
Inflection’s partnership with AngloGold has been the catalyst for a 130% share price hike in 2025, giving the company a market capitalisation of around $40 million – more than five times Kincora’s market value.
Kincora CEO Sam Spring told Mining.com.au recently that there has been over $335 million of similar earn-in and exploration deals with porphyry explorers in New South Wales.
Holliday, meanwhile, says while Kincora is only just ramping up exploration activities with AngloGold, the major has already invested over $14 million in the NJNB.
“In the wake of this second earn-in our drilling plans have been materially expanded at Nevertire and Nevertire South, and now cover three projects,” he says.
“However, and more importantly, we are well positioned to systematically and aggressively advance a new district-scale portfolio of five projects covering over 2,350km2.
“The revised agreement is structured in a manner which supports Kincora shareholders being carried potentially to the equivalent stage of four pre-development recent discoveries in Vicuña that have a current valuation of over $10 billion.”
Initial scout drilling activities at the Nyngan Project began late last year and are ongoing. So far, 12 holes have been drilled.
At the Nyngan Project, a 400km2 ground gravity survey was recently completed, identifying a number of new potential targets for drilling.
A stage-two follow-up step out drilling program is planned following completion of the scout drilling program.
Drilling programs at the Nyngan, Nevertire and Nevertire South projects are expected to run into the third quarter of 2025.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Kincora Copper
