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(Sharecast News) - Strategic Minerals announced on Wednesday that its wholly-owned subsidiary Cornwall Resources (CRL) has finalised an exclusivity and prospecting agreement with the Duchy of Cornwall to advance the commercialisation of mineral rights in the East Cornwall and Tamar Valley region.
The AIM-traded firm said the agreement provided exclusive mineral rights to certain areas adjacent to CRL's Redmoor licence area, within the Duchy's mineral rights in North and East Cornwall.
Covering over 64.27 square kilometres, including the historically mined Tamar Valley Mining District, the expansion would increase CRL's regional exclusive mineral rights footprint almost fourfold to 87.95 square kilometres, from 23.68 square kilometres.
Effective from 1 April, the initial exclusive exploration period would span three years, with an option for further extension, granting CRL the exclusive right to negotiate and implement a further exploration deed and option to mineral rights lease over the agreement area.
Within the agreement area, CRL would have exclusive rights to undertake exploration activities for all ores, minerals, and metalliferous substances, excluding those reserved to the Coal Authority, the Crown, and Mines Royal.
Initial exploration would focus on a desktop review followed by low-cost, high-impact regional exploration and targeting programmes, building on the successful Deep Digital Cornwall Project.
Further targeted work programmes were under design and would be announced in due course.
The company noted that the agreement necessitated CRL to pay an annual rent to the Duchy of Cornwall.
"This agreement with the Duchy of Cornwall materially strengthens CRL's mineral rights footprint in the Tamar Valley Mining District by increasing it by a factor of almost four times," said chairman Alan Broome.
"Strategic Minerals and CRL are honoured to be trusted to deliver progress in compliance with The Duchy of Cornwall's strategic objectives.
"The CRL team is excited to progress initial reviews of the data and historical information available aimed at determining the design of the most logical work programs, with further announcements to follow."
Broome said CRL's regional presence had been significantly strengthened with the addition of the mineral rights in areas that historically supported active mining within the Tamar Valley Mining District.
"This development further underwrites the company's strategy to be part of, and benefit from, the resurgence of mining activity in the UK and directly contribute to the deliverability of the UK's Critical Minerals Strategy and Cornwall's ambition to be a world-class region for metal mining and georesources."
At 0939 GMT, shares in Strategic Minerals were flat at 0.23p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.