The El Valle-Boinás/Carlés Project is located in the Rio Narcea Gold Belt in Northern Spain, near the port city of Avilés. This area was mined by the Romans about 2,000 years ago, explored by various companies during the latter quarter of the twentieth century, and mined by Rio Narcea Gold Mines Ltd. between 1997 and 2006.

Modern gold exploration in this area commenced during the 1970s. Boliden Minerals A.B., Exploraciones Mineras del Cantabrico S.A., Anglo American Company, Hullas del Coto Cortes, S.A., Concord Minera Asturiana, Rio Narcea Gold Mines Ltd., and Barrick Gold drilled over 70,000m at Carlés, El Valle, Godán, and La Ortosa and conducted underground exploration at Carlés between 1981 and 1996.

Commencing in 1997, Rio Narcea mined the Carlés and El Valle gold deposits mainly by open-pit method, switched to underground mining in 2004 and closed the mine in 2006. In total, it produced 840,000 ounces of gold and nearly 14,000 tonnes of copper, of which 90% was by open pit mining. Rio Narcea Gold was acquired by Lundin Mining Corporation in 2007 for its nickel assets, but sold the El Valle-Boinás/Carlés deposits to Kinbauri Gold Corp. During 2007 and 2008, Kinbauri completed both surface and underground drilling at Carlés and El Valle and successfully increased resources throughout the district Orvana acquired Kinbauri in September 2009.