Hammer last year secured a deal with AuKing (then known as Chinalco Yunnan Copper Resources Limited) to give it a 51 percent share in the Mount Isa tenements, known as the Frosty JV, in exchange for 1.5 million shares.

While that transaction was concluded in March this year, a second part of the deal required Hammer reach a JV agreement with Glencore Mount Isa Mines, which has now been completed.

Glencore now owns the other 49 percent of the joint venture.

Mulga Minerals, Hammer’s subsidiary, will manage the JV, with each participant to contribute exploration funds according to their interests in the tenements.

The JV is next to the Mary Kathleen uranium mine, 60km east of Mount Isa and covers the Mary Kathleen Shear Zone that hosts several copper-gold, uranium and rare earth element prospects including Jubilee, Koppany and Blue Caesar. 

The focus of the area has changed from uranium to copper, with Mount Isa Mines conducting comprehensive geochemical and geophysical programs followed up with nine diamond drill holes on the Koppany prospect south east of Mary Kathleen. 

Hammer Metals chief executive Alexander Hewlett said the company was pleased to be working side by side with Glencore in the Mount Isa district.

“The range of prospective copper-gold targets acquired are considered to significantly enhance Hammer’s current tenement portfolio in the Mount Isa region,” Mr Hewlett said.

“The acquisition cover the previously defined Elaine-Dorothy copper-gold inferred resource, the GEM copper-gold resource and the Elaine uranium prospect as well as a range of other copper-gold drill intersections.”

The agreement gives Glencore the right to match the terms of any proposed sale of ore or concentrate from the tenement by Hammer to a third party.