Red Rock Resources Plc (LON:RRR) has started a soil sampling programme to explore for copper and cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The licence is in the Copperbelt in the south of the DRC near the Zambian border.
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Red Rock paid US$60,000 for 80% of the licence, which also included a second licence and a gold prospect in the north adjacent to Randgold's Kibali mine.
Vendor Congo Geologist Galaxy is retaining a 20% stake in the licences.
Andrew Bell, chairman, said: "Our work in the Congo has exposed us to a number of opportunities, at the time when setbacks in the market and in cobalt and copper prices, combined with the uncertainties related to the elections, had created a market more favourable to buyers than for some time.
“The low entry cost of this opportunity and its mineral potential made it worth taking.”