Hudbay’s US properties are the Copper World Project, located in Arizona, and the Mason project, located in Nevada.
The Copper World deposits were discovered in 2021 and are located predominately on our wholly owned patented mining claims adjacent to our East deposit. The discovery drill program was initiated in 2020 to confirm historic drilling and after receiving encouraging results, we launched a larger drill program in 2021 which results in an initial mineral resource estimate.
Hudbay has been acquiring additional private land in the area to support an operation entirely on private land. The company now holds approximately 5,500 acres of private land and patented mining claims, which is enough to support the first 20 years of production at the Copper World Project.
Following the recent exploration success on patented mining claims and ongoing litigation uncertainty regarding the
project design set forth in the 2017 feasibility study for the East deposit, Hudbay began to evaluate alternative
design options to unlock value within this prospective district in Arizona. This led to the release of a robust
preliminary economic study for the Copper World Complex in June 2022. The study contemplates a two-phased mine plan
with the first phase reflecting a standalone operation with processing infrastructure on Hudbay’s private land and
mining occurring on patented mining claims with a defined two-phased mine plan. This strategy was designed to split
Phase I requiring only state and local permits to advance the project and separate out the federal land permitting
requirements needed for expansion in Phase II. In September 2023, Hudbay released the enhanced Pre-Feasibility Study
outlining the company's intentions for Phase 1, to develop a standalone open-pit operation requiring only state and
local permits for an extended 20-year mine life.
Copper World is a fully permitted project advancing into the final feasibility and planning phase to progress towards the development of the mine in the coming years. In 2021, the State Mine Inspector approved Copper World’s Mined Land Reclamation Plan (MLRP), and more recently, in 2024 the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) approved both the Aquifer Protection Permit and the Air Quality Permit. These milestones underscore Copper World’s dedication to responsible development. Mining in the United States is highly regulated, and the rigorous review process conducted by Arizona’s state agencies confirms that Copper World’s operations will meet stringent environmental and operational standards.
The Mason deposit, acquired in late 2018, is one of the largest undeveloped copper resources in the Americas. It is similar in scale to Constancia and Hudbay released a robust preliminary economic study on Mason in April 2021.