Hudbay’s US properties include the Copper World and Cactus projects located in Arizona, and the Mason project located in Nevada.
The Copper World project, located near Tucson, Arizona, is a low-risk, traditional open pit copper mine, owned by Hudbay (70%) and Mitsubishi (30%). Hudbay and Mitsubishi formally approved the final investment decision and initiated construction of the project in October 2026, with the release of the 2026 Definitive Feasibility Study outlining an optimized 15-year Base Case mine plan utilizing state and local permits with first production targeted for the second half of 2029.
Key features of this optimized plan include: an expanded concentrator, in-pit crushing and conveying, an enhanced tailings strategy, lowering the mine strip ratio, an Extension Case that extends the mine life to 37 years, and advancing engineering work on a Concentrate Leach Facility. This facility would provide the option to produce “Made in America” copper cathode considering future market conditions.
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 resulted in an initial mineral resource estimate.
The Company now holds approximately 5,500 acres of private land and patented mining claims, which is enough to support the first 15 years of production at the Copper World project as part of the project’s Base Case. A new resource model was completed for the 2022 PEA, which contemplated a two-phased mine plan with Phase I as a stand-alone operation requiring state and local permits only and Phase II expanding onto federal lands requiring federal permits.
In September 2023, Hudbay released the 2023 PFS for Copper World reflecting the results of further technical work on Phase I of the project. Since 2023, Hudbay has focused on metallurgical testing and progressing the engineering of the initial operation to a feasibility study level, in addition to completing related pre-feasibility studies on the mill expansion and IPCC projects, trade-off studies and de-risking activities.
Hudbay has also received all major permits required to bring the mine plan into operation under the 60,000 tons per day concentrator scenario and secured Mitsubishi as a 30% joint venture partner. 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 in 2025. 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.
Hudbay’s second large-scale project in Arizona is the Cactus project, a long-life low-cost copper asset located on private land. With Hudbay’s acquisition of Arizona Sonoran Copper Company (“ASCU”) in June 2026, the company has created the third largest copper district in North America. Geologically, the project is situated at the convergence of three major porphyry copper belts and benefits from nearby access to a skilled workforce. Because Cactus is a previously producing brownfield site, it has key infrastructure in place including access to water and power, and benefits from proximity to highways and a rail network. Operations envision a conventional open pit mine with heap leach facility to produce U.S. domestic cathode copper. Hudbay anticipates significant operational efficiencies and synergies with Copper World. Hudbay is advancing an updated pre-feasibility study on Cactus to continue de-risking the project.
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. The company is currently conducting pre-feasibility studies to support a robust business case for this project.