Australian mineral explorer Venus Resources Ltd. announced on Monday it had entered into share subscription and joint venture deals with a Chinese entity.

    Venus recently expanded its exploration focus to identify world- class iron ore, precious metals, uranium and base metal exploration targets within prospective, mineral-rich orogenic belts of Western Australia.

    Venus will raise 4 million Australian dollars (3.6 million U.S. dollars) through a placement of 2 million shares at 2 Australian dollars (1.8 U.S. dollars) a share to HD Mining & Investment Pty Ltd., a subsidiary of Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Minerals.

    This will give HD Mining a stake in Venus of about 7 percent.

    HD Mining will also take a 50 percent stake in Venus' Yalgoo iron ore project in Western Australia.


    The deals are subject to approval by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board.