- The Director's Special
- Posts
- Hudbay, Mitsubishi Ink US$600m Copper World Tie-Up
Hudbay, Mitsubishi Ink US$600m Copper World Tie-Up
South32 write-down Mozal to the tune of US$372m, U.S. eyes further critical minerals development
The Pre-Start
Hudbay delivered quarterly adjusted EBITDA of US$245m on production of 30kt copper & 56koz gold, with production guidance reaffirmed. Cash cost guidance was improved to 65-85c/lb on increased gold credits (HBM.TO) Stock up 23%, transaction details below
South32’s carrying value assessment will recognise a US$372m impairment for Mozal, reducing its value to US$68m, with FY26 production expected to be ~240kt, as it expects to placed the facility on care & maintenance in March (S32)
Orezone commenced trading on the ASX today, while sharing quarterly production of 27.5koz at an AISC of US$1,830/oz. Stage 1 expansion is 63% complete, on track for first gold in Q4 CY25 (ORE, Pres)
Catalyst share drilling from outside the Trident resource, delivering intercepts such as 22m at 5.2g/t from 375m (CYL)
Fortuna shared drilling results from Diamba Sud in Senegal, with a headline hit of 22.7g/t over an estimated true width of 21.6m from 53m (FVI.TO)
Alkane shared exploration work from Tomingley, intersecting gold at the El Paso prospect, which sits 2km south of San Antonio (ALK)
Gorilla shared an update from Comet Vale, with drilling down-dip returning a result of 11m at 5.5g/t from 366m (GG8)
Drilling by Warriedar at Windinne Well intercepted 12m at 3.6g/t from 266m among results from 12 holes (WA8)
Lady Herial metallurgical work by Lunnon demonstrated overall gold recoveries of 91.4% (12-hour residence) & 94.6% (24-hour) at P80 passing 150μm (LM8)
EcoGraf shared the economics on Stage 1 of its Production Qualification Facility, with a pre-tax NPV10 of US$282m and IRR of 42%, after US$95m in capital cost for production of 25ktpa at 4N purity (EGR)
High Grade It
Trump is preparing to offer Putin access to rare earth minerals as an incentive for him to end the war in Ukraine (AFR)
The Trump administration is proposing ~US$1B to speed development of U.S. critical minerals and materials, the Energy Department said (Reuters)
Alkane vowed to bypass Chinese ports forever after authorities seized & returned a 55t antimony shipment headed for a US defence supplier (Australian)
Freeport is selling large volumes of copper ore following an outage at a plant it owns in Indonesia, bringing short-term relief to smelters (Bloomberg)
AGL increased its renewable energy & battery storage goals, which it said are needed for grid stability, but will eye asset sales (Australian)
MinRes will front up to ~$15m to fund the administration of Chris Ellison’s brother’s collapsed RDG (BN)
Peru’s presidential election in April could lead to disruptions at MMG’s flagship Las Bambas copper mine, CEO Zhao Jing Ivo said (Bloomberg)
Over 14,000 industry eyes read this daily, including the mining sector’s biggest decision-makers. Want their attention? This is your front-row seat.
Wheelin’ n Dealin’
Mitsubishi has agreed to pay US$600m for a 30% stake in Hudbay Minerals proposed Copper World project in the US, reducing Hudbay’s remaining capital contribution to ~US$200m. It’s also agreed on enhanced precious metal stream terms with Wheaton for an additional US$70m (HBM.TO) Stock surged 23%
Terra AI announced a $3.4m seed funding raise and strategic partnerships with several mining companies, including Rio Tinto (Terra AI)
Rattlin’ the Tin
WA1 is raising $100m at $17/share, a 9% discount to the 5-day VWAP (WA1, AFR)
Centaurus raised $20m via a placement for Jaguar, with a $3m SPP underway (CTM)
Denison upsized & priced its convertible notes due in 2031, totalling US$300m, paying 4.25% with a conversion price 35% above its closing stock price (DML.TO)
Amex Exploration completed the final tranche of its C$37m placement (AMX.TO)
Emerita upsized its to C$25m brokered private placement (EMO.V)
Lake Resources is in a trading halt pending announcement of a capital raise (LKE)
Word on the Decline
There’s a bit of news on CIMIC over the last few months: running a process to sell UGL Transport and now apparently considering an IPO of Theiss again… We reckon the sale of UGL is motivated by CIMIC’s requirement to fund ~$1b they are required to pay hedge fund, Elliot
CIMIC sold 50% of Thiess to Elliott in 2020, with a put option back to CIMIC. CIMIC bought 10% back from Elliott last year. The put option for the remining 40% is exercisable between April 2025 and December 2026
On Theiss, we think the IPO strategy is still some way off. The majority parent company of CIMIC is Spanish giant, ACS. And they have no love for Thiess, given the mining services business’s substantial coal-linked revenue and their own green European debt…
But instead of an IPO, keep an eye out for the 40% minority stake in Theiss to go to either a Japanese or Indonesian suitor.
Do you have some Word on the Decline? Reply to this email or shoot a message to [email protected] directly. We will always take your privacy seriously.
In the Weeds
Today’s Top Tweet
Artificial intelligence becoming more commonplace in exploration. Actual intelligence remains rare.
— Aaron Colleran (@a_colleran)
11:39 PM • Aug 13, 2025
Devil’s in the Detail
Everyone should study the Mitsubishi deal with Hudbay overnight. This chart says it all. Hudbay’s capital contribution is now a mere US$200m, and the levered IRR explodes to 90% without overloading the project with too much debt...
Beautiful.
Catch up on our latest episode
🟢Spotify | 🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🟥 Youtube
Reply