Arizona Sonoran Copper Company (ASCU.TO) said Thursday that Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO) agreed to invest $19.9 million in the company through a private placement.

The offering comprised 11,852,064 shares priced at $1.68 per share. Closing is expected to occur on or about Jan. 30.

Arizona Sonoran plans to use the proceeds to advance the Cactus copper project in Arizona, as well as for general corporate purposes.

"We welcome Hudbay, a mid-tier base metal producer with decades of base metal successes in the Americas and a strong existing footprint in Arizona, as a larger and increasingly engaged shareholder, able to lend its experience and expertise as we advance and develop Cactus," said George Ogilvie, Arizona Sonoran's president and CEO.

This comes after Panoro Minerals (PML.V) late on Wednesday said a Hudbay Minerals subsidiary will exercise its option to repurchase and cancel the 2% net smelter return royalty on the Kusiorcco project for US$2 million.

The companies are in the process of having the repurchase and cancellation of the royalty registered in the Peru Public Registry, which is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks.

Panoro retained the royalty from the sale of the project to Hudbay in 2018.