Hudbay and an Ontario company will sell off many of the company’s remaining Flin Flon area assets next week.
The company and TCL Asset Group, an Ontario-based asset management and auction group, will oversee three days of sales to offload equipment not otherwise sold by Hudbay, moved to its Snow Lake operations or kept to possibly restart the Flin Flon mill if needed.
All told, the companies plan to sell off more than 2,000 individual assets in the sale, ranging from small items to heavy equipment and everything in between.
The sale will be held as a live webcast auction over three days next week - first, rolling stock items like trucks, trailers, vans and wheeled equipment, generators and pumps will go up for sale Sept. 20. The next day will see items from the casting plant and powerhouse on the block, as well as mine hoists, cranes, electrical assets and items from the oxygen plant. The third and final day, Sept. 22, will include spare parts, items from storage, pumps, hoists and other miscellaneous items.
“We’ve advertised this sale worldwide - we’ve been advertising it for a month,” said Terrance Jacobs, CEO of TCL Asset Group.
“There’s been a huge amount of interest worldwide.”
Items from some portions of Flin Flon Hudbay operations have already been sold off, particularly items from the Flin Flon cellhouse. A request for proposals was already held for cellhouse items, while some items were made available for presale throughout the summer and purchased.
“These are a great opportunity for not only other mining companies and other companies in industries such as mining, oil and gas, pulp and paper to buy equipment from the sale, but also smaller companies that have a small fleet of equipment or need equipment, and also individuals,” said Jacobs of the sale.
“There'll be a lot of people that are just bidding for their own use either at home or in their shops.”
The auction company has held sales similar to Hudbay’s in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Central and South America in several different industries, including construction, food and beverages, plastics, chemicals, phamaceuticals and real estate.
Hudbay and TCL have worked together since January, when the mining company first began plans to sell off excess equipment. Word of the deal between the two groups became public knowledge in March.
“We’ve been working together for months now on this project. We’ve had other sales, we’ve sold other assets for them over the past few months,” Jacobs said, adding that the sale will be administered from the company’s base in Ontario but not expecting any hangups due to the distance.
“The fact that we’re in Ontario is not really an issue, because we come, we extract the information and we put it up online and we sell it. We don't have to be there on a daily basis, but there's a lot that's involved in gathering the information, posting it, making sure that the information is correct.”
Once items are bought, the purchaser will cover charges relating to getting items from the site - TCL will oversee getting items out of the Hudbay compound, but buyers will cover costs and will be responsible for shipping items.
Registration for the sale can be done at the TCL Asset Group website at managingyourassets.com.
