Aldebaran Resources Inc. announced that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Nuton LLC to evaluate the use of Nuton's proprietary primary sulphide leaching technologies on the Altar copper-gold project, located in San Juan, Argentina. Under the terms of the agreement, Aldebaran will deliver samples representing various styles of mineralization from the Altar project to Nuton. Nuton will then complete detailed mineralogical analyses of each sample before placing the material into columns.

Samples will be placed in columns with a height of 1 m, each under different controlled Nuton operating conditions. It is expected that the full results will be available approximately one year after the columns are loaded. Test work is currently anticipated to commence in first half of 2024.

As part of the agreement, Aldeban has granted exclusivity to Nuton in the area of novel, patented or trade secret leaching technologies, for a period of one year starting on the agreement date of January 9, 2024. The parties will share the cost of the test program with Aldebaran covering the cost of preparation and shipping of the samples to Nuton, and Nuton paying for the costs of metallurgical test work.