Culpeo Minerals, the Australian copper development and exploration firm, has expanded its landholding in Chile by 45% following the granting of 24 additional exploration licences (ELs) covering 2,809 hectares (ha).

The licences cover the company’s Lana Corina and Fortuna projects, taking its total landholding in the country to 9,033ha.

The additional tenure increases Culpeo Minerals’ presence around established areas hosting copper-gold mineralisation.

According to the company, the new licences include five ELs totalling 793ha at Lana Corina and 19 ELs covering 2,016ha at Fortuna.

Culpeo Minerals has incorporated the new areas into ongoing exploration programmes that include geological mapping, rock-chip sampling and channel sampling.

These activities aim to support the identification and prioritisation of targets for future drilling.

At the same time, exploration work is continuing at the Fortuna Project, where an induced polarisation survey has commenced across approximately 24 line kilometres.

The survey is targeting multiple prospects confirmed to host copper-gold mineralisation and is designed to provide data on subsurface chargeability and resistivity.

The findings from the survey, together with data from mapping, trenching, geochemistry, magnetic surveys and drilling, will be used to refine and rank targets for further exploration.

Diamond drilling activities are in progress at the El Quillay South prospect, with initial assay results anticipated by August 2026.

Culpeo Minerals interim executive chair Geoff McNamara said: “The granting of these licences materially strengthens Culpeo’s land position across the Lana Corina and Fortuna project areas and supports our objective of establishing a district-scale, copper-gold portfolio in Chile.

“This new tenure covers areas surrounding and along-strike from known mineralisation. It provides our geological team with a broader area across which to apply the geological models developed through our existing exploration programmes.”