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  • Los Cerros (LCL) acquires Footprint Resources to expand its mineral portfolio within Papua New Guinea
  • The company is acquiring Footprint for a mix of cash and shares and, through the purchase, will gain full ownership of five copper, gold, and nickel project areas, covering a combined 3867 square kilometres
  • Once the acquisition is complete, Los Cerros will undertake a 3000-metre diamond drilling program at one of the projects that returned a historical high-grade drill result
  • Company shares are up 16.7 per cent to trade at 4.2 cents at 12:29 pm AEDT

Los Cerros (LCL) has acquired Footprint Resources, which owns multiple copper, gold and nickel targets in Papua New Guinea.

Los Cerros said the acquisition provided it with “high impact, new discovery potential” in a region known to host a number of major mineral deposits.

Specifically, the company will gain full ownership of five project areas that include the Tauya, Imou, Liamu, and Ono projects, and the Veri Veri nickel prospect. These projects cover a combined 3867 square kilometres within the central and southern parts of Papua New Guinea.

Los Cerros paid Footprint $350,000 in cash and issued roughly 65 million shares for the acquisition. As part of the acquisition, Footprint’s geologists, Glenn Twomey and John Dobe, will join Los Cerros as employees.

Mr Twomey and Mr Dobe bring almost 60 years of combined experience in mineral exploration, which includes a combined 16 years of leadership experience in Papua New Guinea.

“This transformational addition to the Los Cerros mineral portfolio offers immediate and material exploration upside as well as jurisdictional and metal diversity, in particular the addition of critical metals to the electric vehicle sector,” Los Cerros Managing Director Jason Stirbinskis said.

“I have walked the ground over the key projects, and the near-term prospectivity of our new PNG portfolio is compelling,” he added.

Once the acquisition is complete, Los Cerros will begin exploration at two of the five newly-acquired projects.

Specific works will include a 3000-metre diamond drilling program at the Kusi target, which can be found at the Ono project.

The company is focused on this particular target as re-interpreted historical drill results showed an intercept of 35 metres at 3.04 grams per tonne gold from 136 metres.

Company shares were up 16.7 per cent to trade at 4.2 cents at 12:29 pm AEDT.

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