Flagship Minerals has renegotiated the terms of its option to acquire the Rosario copper-silver project in Chile, extending the option to October 2028 and halving the final exercise payment to US$1 million (A$1.42 million).
Under the revised agreement, Flagship has already paid US$100,000 for the current year and faces a further US$100,000 (A$142,450) payment later this month, ahead of the reduced final payment in 2028. The company can settle these obligations in cash or by issuing shares and may exercise the final option early to waive remaining annual payments.
The transaction includes a 1 per cent net smelter royalty, which Flagship can buy back at a pre-agreed price. The renegotiation gives the company a cheaper route to secure 100 per cent ownership of Rosario while limiting immediate capital outlays.
Rosario sits at about 2,500 metres elevation in the Diego de Almagro commune of the Atacama region, roughly 125 km east of the port city of Chañaral and about 10 km north of Codelco’s El Salvador mine. The area is an active mining district, with Copiapó around 160 km to the south.
Previous work across Rosario has defined three prospective trends with a combined strike length near 15 km. Surface rock-chip sampling has returned assays up to 8.9 per cent copper, while samples above 0.75 per cent averaged 3.15 per cent copper and 18 ppm silver, underlining the project’s high-grade surface potential.
Flagship’s decision to renegotiate follows management’s intent to prioritise capital for its larger Isidora gold project, also in northern Atacama. Isidora carries a JORC-compliant mineral resource of 115.2 million tonnes at 0.56 g/t gold, equivalent to about 2.1 million ounces of gold, and the company is advancing work aimed at a low-cost heap-leach development and a prefeasibility study.
Management says the updated Rosario arrangement preserves optionality over a high-grade copper asset while freeing funds to progress Isidora. The company also holds the Whipsaw copper project in British Columbia, which has a JORC exploration target of 0.51 to 1.02 billion tonnes at 0.2 to 0.4 per cent copper-equivalent; Flagship is considering spinning Whipsaw into a separately listed ASX vehicle.
The move comes as deals continue to flow across Chile’s copper belts. As an example of investor interest in the region, Lundin Mining recently agreed to pay US$215 million (A$306 million) for an additional stake in the nearby Caserones copper-molybdenum mine.
Flagship has stated it will conduct further work at Rosario after key milestones are reached at Isidora, allowing the company to allocate capital where it sees the greatest value per dollar. The revised option effectively lowers the immediate cost of holding the Rosario ground while maintaining the pathway to full ownership.
Category: Business
