Hudbay reduces Rosemont spending, now looks to develop other mining projects first

Posted on November 10, 2016 by admin
Hudbay CEO Alan Hair

Hudbay CEO Alan Hair

Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc. continues to cut spending on its Rosemont copper project and is now emphasizing developing major projects in Manitoba and Peru before it turns its attention to constructing the $1.5 billion open pit mine in the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest southeast of Tucson, according to company information released last week.

Hudbay’s deemphasis on Rosemont comes at the same time the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles district office in July recommended denial of a federal Clean Water Act permit needed to construct the mine. The Army Corps regional office in San Francisco is reviewing the recommendation and is expected to make a decision later this winter.

Hudbay CEO Alan Hair told investment analysts in a Nov. 3 conference call the company expects to issue an updated Rosemont technical report in the 1st Quarter of 2017 “outlining the feasibility work completed to date and an updated reserve and resource estimate.”

Investment analysts appear to have written off any possibility of Rosemont being developed in the next two years. Mathew Fields of Bank of America Merrill Lynch stated “we can get forget about Rosemont for while” when he asked about Hudbay’s capital expenditure plans for 2017 and 2018, according to a transcript of the conference call published by Yahoo Finance. Continue reading →

Posted in Hudbay, Investors | 3 Comments

Pima County asks Army Corps to deny Clean Water Act permit needed to construct Hudbay’s Rosemont copper mine

Posted on October 31, 2016 by admin

Pima County is formally requesting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco regional office to uphold a July recommendation from the Corps’ Los Angeles district to deny a Clean Water Act permit needed to construct the proposed Rosemont copper project.

“Denying a CWA Section 404 permit is the best decision that can be made with the existing technologies and conditions presented by this particular mine,” Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry states in an Oct. 21 letter to the Corps’ regional commander Col. D. Peter Helmlinger.

Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc. is seeking state and federal permits to construct the $1.5 billion Rosemont open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest 30 miles southeast of Tucson. The CWA Section 404 permit is the last major federal permit required before construction could begin on the project.

The Corps’ Los Angeles district office recommended permit denial in late July, according to an Aug. 1 story in the Arizona Daily Star. Continue reading →

Posted in Clean Water Act, Hudbay | 4 Comments

Hudbay executive says Rosemont mining plan is being revised

Posted on October 7, 2016 by admin

Hudbay Minerals Inc. is preparing a revised mining plan for its proposed Rosemont open-pit copper project in the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest southeast of Tucson; a corporate executive recently disclosed to a mining news website.

“We actually hope within the next six to eight months to produce more disclosure on Rosemont so we can show what Hudbay’s plan is, because it’s changed a little from the Augusta plan on how we would operate, build, and mine it,”  Cashel Meagher, Hudbay’s chief operating officer, told Mining.com in a Sept. 18 profile.

“We are working on a more robust capital construction scenario with a more thoughtful mining plan,” Meagher is quoted as saying.

Meagher’s statement indicates that Hudbay is delaying the release of a definitive feasibility study for Rosemont. The report, which is required by regulators and used by lenders and investors to evaluate a mining project, was expected to be released by mid-2016, according to a January news release.

In January, Hudbay said it would spend $30 million completing the study that would provide the foundation for its decision on future investments in the $1.5 billion Rosemont project. A month later, Hudbay said the $30 million would be spent over the entire year, rather than the first six months of 2016. Continue reading →

Posted in Feasibility Study, General | 3 Comments

SEC files illegal insider trading charges against former Hudbay executive in connection with Rosemont mine purchase

Posted on September 30, 2016 by admin

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday filed illegal insider trading charges against a former Hudbay Minerals Inc. senior executive based in Peru in connection with Hudbay’s 2014 acquisition of Augusta Resource Corp. and its Arizona-based Rosemont Copper Company subsidiary.

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Nino Coppero

“The SEC alleges that Nino Coppero del Valle…tipped his close friend and fellow attorney Julio Antonio Castro Roca with material nonpublic information about a tender offer his company submitted to acquire the shares of (Vancouver, B.C.)-based Augusta,” a Sept. 28 SEC press release states.

Hudbay initiated a hostile takeover of Augusta in February 2014 and eventually acquired Augusta in July 2014. Hudbay is now seeking state and federal permits to construct the Rosemont copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest southeast of Tucson.

Coppero was Hudbay’s director of corporate affairs and social responsibility for Hudbay’s Peruvian operations between March 2011 and September 2014, according to Coppero’s Linkedin profile. Continue reading →

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Shots fired into home of Guatemalan activist suing Hudbay

Posted on September 21, 2016 by admin

Gunshots were fired last week into the home of Guatemalan human rights leader Angelica Choc, who is a plaintiff in a high-profile wrongful death civil lawsuit filed against Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc. in connection with the 2009 murder of her husband.

Hudbay is seeking state and federal permits to construct the proposed Rosemont open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest 35 miles southeast of Tucson.

Rights Action, a Canadian human rights organization, is reporting that the gunfire occurred just after midnight on Friday, Sept. 16 while Ms. Choc was sleeping in her El Estor, Guatemala home with her two children.

Ms. Choc is the widow of Adolfo Ich, a teacher and community leader murdered Sept. 27, 2009.  Hudbay Minerals’ then head of security, Mynor Padilla, has been charged with the killing and his criminal trial is ongoing in Guatemala. Padilla is a former colonel in the Guatemalan military. Continue reading →

Posted in Hudbay, Human Rights | 2 Comments