Minotaur will drill five diamond reconnaissance holes near OZ’s Prominent Hill copper-gold mine in South Australia after selecting three high-priority targets.

It comes after OZ opened up its Prominent Hill database for Minotaur to review and define targets.

Minotaur Exploration’s predecessor Minotaur Resources discovered Prominent Hill initially before transferring it to Oxiana, which later became OZ.

Each company will contribute up to $A1.5 million to test the targets and Minotaur will secure a 20% stake in any “designated target”.

Minotaur will also drill-test two anomalies at the Eloise copper mine in Queensland.

OZ is funding drilling at Eloise to the tune of around $1.5 million initially, and can eventually earn 70% by spending a total of $10 million.

“Minotaur would be suitably chuffed should our work ultimately reveal an economic grade mineral discovery to complement either of the existing nearby mines,” Minotaur managing director Andrew Woskett said.

“It would vindicate our learnings, some favourable and some less so, through recent years around Cloncurry, now applied around Prominent Hill and Eloise.

“These are all cracking targets and we can’t wait to see the drill core evidence to explain each source of anomalism.”

OZ CEO Andrew Cole said the purpose of the partnership was to look for new opportunities while remaining focused on its core assets.

“Having a highly regarded junior explorer share our data and opening up our exploration tenements is, to our mind, both an effective way to appropriately manage our capital while bringing a fresh perspective,” he said.

“While it is early days, we await the outcome with interest.”

OZ has five JVs in place with juniors to build a pipeline of future development options.

Shares in OZ jumped by more than 5% to $5.975, while Minotaur shares added 8% to 8c.