At Rio Tinto copper leaching technology company Nuton acquired a 16.5% stake in a Canadian exploration company Regulus Resources for $15 million.
Pursuant to the arm’s length private placement, Nuton purchased 20.06 million common shares of Regulusat CA$1.02 each.
In a report, Rio Tinto stated, “Upon closing of the financing, Nuton acquired beneficial ownership and control of 20,058,974 common shares representing 16.1% of the issued and outstanding common shares at closing on a non-diluted basis.
Nuton has also signed a collaboration agreement with Regulus whereby the former obtains certain investor rights.
This includes the option for Nuton to retain its stake in Regulus if it continues to hold a stake of more than 10%.
Nuton will also appoint a director to the board of Regulus. Additionally, the duo will set up a Joint Venture Advisory Board to share skills, exploration concepts and development opportunities on Regulus Resources’ AntaKori project in Peru.
The funding from Nuton will be used by Regulus to develop the AntaKori copper-gold project as well as for general corporate purposes.
In its statement, Rio Tinto further noted: “The Company has granted exclusivity to Nuton in new, patented or secret leach technologies for a period of one year after delivery of metallurgical samples from AntaKori to Nuton for testing.
“For one year, Nuton has pledged not to sell any shares of Regulus, to acquire a stake in excess of 19.9% in the company and to vote its common stock in favor of each director appointed by the company.”
The mining giant said Nuton bought the common shares of Regulus for investment purposes.
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