Marubeni option agreement to explore Flin Flon Greenstone Belt with Hudbay

On March 13, 2024, Hudbay Minerals Inc. (“Hudbay”) announced the signing of an option agreement with Marubeni Corporation (“Marubeni”), pursuant to which a wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary of Marubeni was granted an option to acquire a 20% interest in the following three projects located within trucking distance of Hudbay’s processing facilities in Flin Flon, Manitoba

1. Cuprus-White Lake project—covers 3,384 hectares 10 km southeast of Flin Flon, with 94 claims
2. Westarm project—covers 727 hectares 14 km south of Flin Flon, with three primary claims
3. North Star project— covers 406 hectares 17 km east of Flin Flon, with 22 claims

In order to exercise the option, amongst other things, Marubeni will fund at least C$12 million in exploration expenditures over a period of approximately five years with Hudbay acting as operator and carrying out the exploration activities. Upon successful completion of Marubeni’s earn-in obligations, a joint venture will be formed to hold the selected projects with Hudbay, acting as operator, holding an 80% interest and Marubeni holding the remaining 20% interest.

The execution of the agreement followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the parties that set out the framework for a multi-year exploration partnership, previously announced in July 2023.

Exploration work under the agreement is expected to begin in the summer 2024 with various geochemical and mapping programs, with the 2025 winter exploration program expected to be significant with up to 20,000 m of drilling and several geophysical programs to generate additional drill targets on the properties.

Further information can be found on Globe Newswire’s website.

Marubeni is a Japanese integrated trading and investment business conglomerate with broad business networks, both within Japan and overseas, to conduct importing and exporting (including third country trading), as well as domestic business, encompassing a diverse range of business activities across wide-ranging fields. These fields include lifestyle, ICT & real estate business, forest products, food, agri business, chemicals, energy, metals & mineral resources, power business, infrastructure project, aerospace & ship, finance & leasing business, construction, industrial machinery & mobility, and next generation business development.

Hudbay is a copper-focused mining company with three long-life operations and a world-class pipeline of copper growth projects in tier-one mining-friendly jurisdictions of Canada, Peru and the United States.