Company has signed an Impacts and Benefits Agreement with the Shuar communities of Warints and Yawi, its indigenous partners, for the copper project.

The project is located immediately south of the Red Chris mine, which is viewed by the company as a potential tier 1 asset.

Funds are riding a wave of Chinese buying that has confounded the market and seen LME copper rise from its March low of $4,371 per tonne to a two-year high of $6,830.

Chile reported copper shipments of $2.76 billion for August, an 11% drop from July.

The U.S regulator has not yet decided to launch an investigation.