Hudbay is inching closer to opening a mine on the coveted Rosemont project site in the southwest United States.
Water permits for mining on the site, the final permits required to start operation, were recently approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Few legal hurdles now stand between Hudbay and beginning construction on the site. The U.S. Forest Service will now have to approve a final operating plan for the mine, as the waste rock and tailings from a potential mine would be stored on land that is part of the Coronado National Forest. Approval from the Forest Service could come within the next month, according to a spokesperson quoted in a report by the Arizona Daily Star. The Forest Service previously approved the mine in June, 2017.
Hudbay reached a deal with United Copper and Moly (UCM) to buy out UCM’s interest in the project and end UCM’s mineral rights to the property for a one-time payment of $45 million and three additional $10 million annual payments starting in 2022.
UCM owned a 7.95 per cent interest in the property. The payment from Hudbay also pays out existing project loans previously held by UCM.
UCM is owned by LG International Corporation and Korea Resources Corporation, two South Korea-based resource investment companies.
The financial transaction has not yet formally closed, but is slated to finish before April 25 pending board approval.
The Rosemont initiative, an open pit copper project located in Arizona, has been described by Hudbay as “one of the world’s best undeveloped copper projects.” It is estimated to cost $1.9 billion to bring a mine to operation, spent over a 30-month period. More than 500 permanent jobs and 3,000 construction jobs are slated to come from the project, which would be one of the largest copper mines in the U.S. once in operation. No formal timetable has been set for the mine’s construction.
Hudbay’s goal for the property is to have a 70 per cent interest in the project, working with a new partner to process the site.
There has been some controversy around Rosemont as environmental and Indigenous groups have condemned the project, saying work on the site would disturb the sacred Santa Rita mountain range and potentially pollute water supplies at the site. The Tohono O’Odham, Hopi and Pascua-Yaqui tribes, all of which have tradtional roots in the area, have filed suit to stop the project.
