The multinational miner and explorer spent nearly C$6 million (US$4.5 million) on exploration and made option payments of about $650,000 to ground holder Mirasol Resources.

Work included a combined 8,750m drilled in 48 holes at the La Curva and Claudia exploration prospects.

Mirasol is a project generator listed in Toronto, with other partners on its books including Newcrest Mining and Hochschild Mining - both of which are in joint venture with the Canadian company in Chile.

For its part, OceanaGold is also involved with Nevada-focused NuLegacy Gold and Gold Standard Ventures, though in both those cases the interest is via equity investments (of circa 15-16%), rather than exploration joint ventures.

In total, OceanaGold spent US$33.7 million on exploration last year, with production of more than 530,000 ounces of gold and 15,000t of copper bankrolling the work.

OceanaGold is currently budgeting to spend between $26-36 million in 2019.