While the company had other projects in the country, the Bayan Khundii gold project went from greenfield prospect to being its main asset in roughly nine months.
Deal will also see the two firms looking at jointly developing the nearby Pascua-Lama gold, silver and copper project and evaluating additional investment opportunities in the area.
Tungsten, tin, tantalum and gold are now also being illegally extracted and traded at sites under the control of armed groups in countries including Myanmar and Colombia.
Experts expect the country, which accounts for more 30% of the world's copper supply, to produce 5.4 million tonnes of the metal in 2017, slightly down from the 5.5mnt it yielded last year.
