Maquinaria Lorenzana S.A.

ARGENTINA MINING

Canadian miner NGEx Resources Inc. and Japan's Pan Pacific Copper plan to invest 105 million pesos ($17.6 million) in an exploration project in Argentina, officials here said Thursday.

The jointventure partners will begin an exploratory campaign in December that will involve drilling nearly 10,000 meters (32,785 feet) in the Filo del Sol, an area of the northern province of San Juan with copper, gold and silver potential, Argentina's Mining Secretariat said in a statement.

The Filo del Sol project, in which NGEx has a 60 percent stake and the Japanese company the remaining 40 percent interest, is part of a larger project known as Vicuña that straddles the border of Chile and Argentina.

The exploration campaign is due to be concluded in March, with the results of that work to be fully analyzed by November 2014.