It follows the company acquiring the Star Mountains copper-gold project in PNG, 25km from Ok Tedi, through a share purchase agreement comprising the issue of 10 million shares in October.

Freeport said yesterday it had signed a definitive share purchase agreement to issue 20 million shares to privately-held Carpo Resources for its Era Resources and Yandera project.

Era had gone private in 2017.

Freeport said a 2017 prefeasibility study on Yandera showed measured and indicated resources of 727 million tonnes at 0.39% copper-equivalent, an inferred 231Mt million tonnes at 0.32% Cu-eq and probable reserves of 541Mt grading 0.39% Cu-eq.

It was not treating the historical estimates as current.

Freeport also said the Yandera transaction did "not constitute a fundamental acquisition" and it did not expect to assume any material liabilities or devote the majority of its working capital or resources to the development of Carpo or Yandera.

It had raised C$3 million a year ago at 7.5c per unit to conduct due diligence on potential acquisitions, retire existing debts and payables, for general working capital purposes and to ensure listing compliance.

The junior also has the Red Rose tungsten-gold-copper project in British Columbia and the Hutton garnet sand project in Labrador.

Its shares (TSXV: FRI) have spanned 14.5-95c over the past year and closed unchanged at 20c to value it at $15 million (US$12 million).