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The company is starting the permitting, community relations and technical activities required to access and conduct drilling on the concessions.
Hubay Minerals (TSX:HBM,NYSE:HBM) has entered into agreements to acquire three mining properties in Peru through its wholly owned subsidiary, Hudbay Peru.
The firm notes that the three assets, Caballito, Maria Reyna and Kusiorcco, are near its Constancia copper porphyry project, which is located in the southern province of Chumbivilcas.Â
Constancia consists of an open-pit mine, as well as the Pampacancha satellite deposit and a processing plant. According to Hudbay, copper concentrate and molybdenum concentrate are its principal products.
The company signed an option agreement with a private Peruvian consortium to earn a 100-percent interest in the Caballito and Maria Reyna properties. It signed a separate agreement with Panoro Minerals (TSXV:PML) to acquire the Kusiorcco property.
At 5,850 hectares, Maria Reyna is the largest of the the three properties, with Kusiorcco and Caballito following at 3,962 and 120 hectares. Caballito is located about 3 kilometers northwest of Constancia, and is the site of the former Katanga copper oxide mine, which concluded production in the early 1990s. Details of the agreements, including acquisition prices, have not been released.
Hudbay said it is commencing the permitting, community relations and technical activities required to access and conduct drilling activities on the concessions, and expects to provide further details on its exploration plans for these properties in due course.
The acquisitions follow a year of gains for copper prices, which are expected to remain supported in 2018 on demand from China and supply risks.Â
Strikes are a possibility at some mines in Peru and Chile, as over 30 labor contracts covering around 5 million tonnes of mine supply are set to expire during the year. BHP Billiton’s (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BLT) Escondida mine has an end-of-June deadline, and experienced a 44-day strike in Q1 2017 that cut production by about 214,000 tonnes.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Shaw, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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