Inception Mining Inc. said Oct. 18 that it signed an agreement to form a joint venture with Corpus Mining and Exploration Ltd., with the joint venture company to be called Corpus Gold LLC.

Under the deal, Corpus Mining will provide up to US$1 million in funding to the joint venture to fund mineral concessions in Honduras' El Corpus district held by an Inception Mining unit Compania Minera Cerros del Sur SA de CV, while Inception Mining will direct and supervise all exploration, drilling and evaluation initiatives.

A six-month exploration program will start immediately, including rock chip and soil sampling, trenching, geologic mapping and prospecting, among others. The activities aim to generate new exploration targets for drill testing in 2018 as well as develop existing prospects.

Inception Mining owns the Clavo Rico gold project in Honduras and will retain 20% of the proceeds from the commercialization of the concessions covered by the joint venture.