Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Hudbay Minerals Inc. and Copper Mountain Mining Corporation joint conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session.
To join the question queue, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then zero. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded today, April 13th, at 8:30 A.M. Eastern Time. I would now like to turn the conference over to Candace Brûlé, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to the conference call announcing the combination between Hudbay and Copper Mountain. The news release announcing the transaction is available on our website at www.hudbay.com. A corresponding PowerPoint presentation is available under the Events section on our website, and we encourage you to refer to it during this call.
Our presenters today are Peter Kukielski, Hudbay's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Gil Clausen, Copper Mountain's President and Chief Executive Officer. Accompanying Peter and Gil for the Q&A portion of the call will be Eugene Lei, Hudbay's Chief Financial Officer, Andre Lauzon, Hudbay's Chief Operating Officer, and Letitia Wong, Copper Mountain's Chief Financial Officer.
Please note that comments made on today's call may contain forward-looking information, and this information by its nature is subject to risks and uncertainties, and as such, actual results may differ materially from the views expressed today.
For further information on these risks and uncertainties, please consult the company's relevant filings on SEDAR and EDGAR. These documents are also available on our website. As a reminder, all amounts discussed on today's call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Now I'll pass the call over to Peter Kukielski and Gil Clausen.
Thank you, Candace. Good morning, everyone. We are really pleased to be here today announcing the combination of Hudbay and Copper Mountain to create a premier Americas-focused copper producer. The combined company will be the third largest copper producer in Canada, with a balanced asset base across the mining-friendly jurisdictions of Canada, Peru, and the United States.
We are well-positioned to deliver sustainable cash flows from our operating portfolio of three long life mines, as well as organic growth from a world-class pipeline of brownfield expansions and copper development projects. In this presentation today, Gil and I will discuss why this combination represents a great strategic fit for both companies.
We'll also discuss the substantial value to be unlocked through synergies that will benefit both sets of shareholders. Before we discuss the strategic rationale for the transaction, let me begin by reviewing the transaction terms on slide three.
Hudbay will acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Copper Mountain. Copper Mountain shareholders will receive 0.381 of a Hudbay share for each Copper Mountain share. As of the last trading day on April 12th, the transaction represents a 23% premium based on the 10-day VWAP.
After the combination, Hudbay shareholders will own 76% of the combined entity, and Copper Mountain shareholders will own 24%. The board of directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction, and the deal is subject to shareholder and customary approvals.
Post-transaction, two directors will be appointed from Copper Mountain, and the management team will be augmented with certain members from Copper Mountain. We expect the transaction to close later in the second quarter or early in the third quarter of 2023.
Hudbay has been executing a consistent and disciplined growth strategy for over a decade, and this has been a continued focus of mine since I became CEO over three years ago. Our strategic objective is to create sustainable value for our stakeholders by evaluating opportunities that meet our stringent financial and acquisition criteria.
This includes long life, low cost assets that can capture peak pricing across multiple commodity price cycles in jurisdictions that support responsible mining and that are consistent with our ESG principles. Equally as important, we pursue opportunities where we can create value and are accretive to Hudbay.
I've always said we have a disproportionately talented team for a company of our size. We see a tremendous opportunity to apply our team's core technical and operating capabilities and our high efficiency Constancia framework to the Copper Mountain Mine.
This, combined with Copper Mountain's leading technological and ESG practices, will position the operation as an industry leader. This combination is on strategy for both Hudbay and Copper Mountain, and it offers several strategic benefits as shown on slide four. First, Copper Mountain enhances the scale of our business.
We will have a total of six key operating and development assets and one of the largest copper mineral resource bases among our peer group. Second, it geographically balances our portfolio in top-tier jurisdictions. On a pro forma basis, the combined net asset value is estimated to be 55% from North America and 45% from South America on a street consensus basis.
Third, it increases our exposure to copper with expected 2023 copper production of more than 150,000 tons. This is complemented by meaningful gold production that helps maintain a second quartile position on the copper cost curve. Fourth, as mentioned earlier, we believe there's great opportunity to unlock value at the Copper Mountain Mine using our high efficiency framework from our Constancia mine, given the similarities between these operations.
Fifth, the combination provides incremental cash flows, which further strengthens the balance sheet and supports our deleveraging initiatives. Lastly, the combination will allow us to unlock value from a larger organic growth pipeline by more efficiently allocating capital to projects that yield the highest risk-adjusted returns. We have a proven track record of efficiently operating mines and successfully adding value to our operations through exploration and brownfield expansions.
We believe we can bring significant technical and operational expertise to the Copper Mountain Mine to create considerable value for all stakeholders. As shown on slide five, the combined company will have a strong presence across the Americas, with operating and development assets in Canada, the United States and Peru.
As I mentioned, the combined company will have six key assets, three long life producing assets that produce more than 150,000 tons of copper and more than 300,000 ounces of gold, and three highly prospective copper development projects in tier one operating jurisdictions, and these projects have the potential to add more than 200,000 tons to our long-term copper production profile.
The Constancia copper mine in Peru is a 16-year mine life open pit operation with annual production of approximately 110,000 tons of copper over the next three years. We're also exploring highly prospective targets located adjacent to Constancia that have the potential to provide additional sources of high-grade ore and extend the production profile and mine life.
In Manitoba, we have the Snow Lake gold operations, where we recently refurbished our New Britannia mill to significantly grow our gold production to over 190,000 ounces per year. The operations have a 16-year mine life, and we are in the process of completing step out drilling as the mine remains open at depth.
In the United States, we have the Copper World project in Arizona, a top-tier copper development asset that has a 16-year mine life entirely on private lands and is currently being advanced through pre-feasibility studies. We also have the earlier stage Mason Copper project in Nevada, where we released a positive PEA that sees a 27-year mine life and attractive project economics.
The Llaguen project in northwestern Peru is a copper molybdenum porphyry deposit located near existing infrastructure and provides additional long-term copper growth potential in our pipeline. Now I'll pass it over to Gil to provide an overview of the Copper Mountain Mine. Gil?
Thanks, Peter. Good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to be here today with Peter and the team discussing this compelling combination. I believe the Copper Mountain Mine's full potential will be realized within Hudbay's larger portfolio, where it will benefit from the team's combined technical skills and additional resources available as part of a larger, diversified company.
The Copper Mountain Mine is in a very favorable jurisdiction, located about 20 km south of Princeton in British Columbia. The mine is 75% owned by Copper Mountain and 25% owned by partner Mitsubishi Materials, who we think is an exceptional joint venture partner. The mine has a long life, copper gold open pit mine that achieved commercial production in 2011 and is like Hudbay's Constancia mine, both geologically and operationally. The mine has historically produced about 40,000 tons of copper per year.
While we faced some operational challenges in 2022, we are on track for stronger copper production in 2023 and beyond. We've gotten to know Hudbay quite well throughout this process and have really been impressed with their operating expertise, particularly at the Constancia mine in Peru. I have no doubt that they will unlock significant operating efficiencies at Copper Mountain.
Copper Mountain and Hudbay share a strong commitment to operate with the highest ESG principles, as summarized on slide seven. One of the things that struck me personally was the alignment philosophically on ESG and efficiencies. Both companies are committed to operating in a manner that demonstrates a strong focus on the environment and our local communities and indigenous cultures. We strive to practice responsible mining while producing the materials essentially for a future built on sustainable energy.
Our operations are well- positioned in the lower half of the global greenhouse gas emissions curve for copper mines. We're continuously striving to do better, and therefore we have both aligned our greenhouse gas reduction targets with global net zero emission goals.
We're also aligned with the Mining Association of Canada's Towards Sustainable Mining protocols at each of our operations, with the goal to maintain a strong score of an A or higher for all protocols. We believe this model delivers ongoing shared value for all stakeholders and minimizes our impact on the environment for long-term success and a more sustainable future. Moving on to slide eight. Innovation is key to our ESG principles at Copper Mountain.
To reach our goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2035, it's necessary to shrink our carbon footprint throughout our operations and apply innovative technology to reduce environmental impacts. We're fully aligned with the government of BC and the government of Canada's commitment to advancing its clean growth agenda, as well as the Paris Climate Accords.
We believe that at the Copper Mountain Mine has the potential to be the lowest emitting open-pit copper mine in the world by 2035 through the implementation of several net zero carbon initiatives. This includes the recent successful commissioning of electric trolley assist haulage in 2022. Electric-powered haul trucks now travel up our main haulage ramp at twice the speed, 1/10 of the energy cost with near zero greenhouse gas emissions.
We're also actively testing and researching renewable diesel, hydrogen battery and fuel cell technology to power our haulage units off the trolley lines to achieve our goal of net zero carbon emissions at the Copper Mountain Mine by 2035. I'll now hand the call back over to Peter.
Thanks very much, Gil. Hudbay has recently embarked on our own greenhouse gas reduction roadmap to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050. Our roadmap includes the evaluation of several of the technologies that the Copper Mountain team has evaluated and implemented at their mine. We will have the ability to apply Copper Mountain's expertise in carbon reduction initiatives to the Constancia mine and Copper World Project.
I believe Copper Mountain's demonstrated expertise in arresting climate change will help Hudbay achieve our medium and long-term climate change goals, and position the combined company as a leader among our peers. Taking a closer look at the strategic rationale, the transaction enhances the combined company size and scale, as shown on slide 10.
Relative to other intermediate copper producers, the combined company would rank in the top three in terms of annual copper production and would have the second highest EBITDA profile while maintaining the lowest costs in our peer group. We would also have the largest mineral resource base in the space with a total of 16 million tons of copper contained in measured and indicated resources.
The combined company also compares very well with OZ Minerals, which is in the process of being acquired by BHP for over $6 billion. Canada is one of the top mining jurisdictions globally. Hudbay has been operating in Canada for nearly 100 years at our operations in northern Manitoba. We value Canada's political stability, tremendously skilled workforce, constructive regulatory framework, and long mining history.
Both Hudbay and Copper Mountain have a deep commitment to Canada, and we are excited to become the third-largest copper producer in the country, as highlighted on slide 11. Slide 12 highlights the improved liquidity as a result of the transaction. The pro forma company will be a larger and more liquid name for investors.
We will be among the leaders of our peer group for trading liquidity and will fill the gap left by the recent acquisitions of OZ and Turquoise Hill. This will ultimately create a more investable and desirable company for investors. Turning to slide 13. The combined company will have a balanced geographic exposure across North and South America. Based on broker consensus estimates, approximately 55% of the combined net asset value will be in North America, while the remaining 45 will be in South America.
In addition, we would be one of a few intermediate mining companies with 100% exposure to the Americas. Copper Mountain has a complementary portfolio that is primarily copper with gold as a secondary metal, as shown on slide 14. On a consolidated basis, the combination increases the percentage of Hudbay's reserves and revenue from copper. Approximately 60% of the pro forma revenues will be from copper, and more than 65% of the re-reserves are copper.
The balance of the combined portfolio will be gold and zinc, which are complementary commodities to copper and help maintain a lower copper cash cost profile, as mentioned earlier. The next few slides highlight the potential for meaningful efficiencies and synergies from this combination. We think there's a substantial opportunity to unlock value for the benefit of all shareholders. At Hudbay, we believe one of our core competencies is operating efficiency.
As slide 15 illustrates, we have historically leveraged our extensive operating knowledge to operate Constancia as one of the most cost-efficient and consistent copper mines in South America. Due to similarities between Copper Mountain and Constancia, we have great insight into the opportunities to optimize the Copper Mountain Mine. We think the potential is significant.
We also believe we'll benefit from sharing services across our Canadian assets as our Manitoba operations have recently reduced in size with the depletion of one of our mines in 2022. We estimate around $30 million of annual efficiencies and synergies highlighted on slide 16. This includes $10 million of annual corporate shared synergies and tax attributes.
In addition, we expect to achieve an estimated $20 million per year in operating cost improvements over time through the application of our framework, improving productivity, reducing costs, and achieving consistent and stable operations at the Copper Mountain Mine. This further builds on the great work done by the team at site and recent positive momentum experience at the mine.
As I mentioned before, there are many key similarities between Copper Mountain and Constancia, as listed on slide 17. They're both large-scale open pit copper mines with gold and silver byproducts. They both also have high-grade satellites, including Constancia's Maria Reina and Caballito deposits and Copper Mountain's New Ingerbelle deposit. The age of equipment is also similar, having been built within a few years of each other and currently utilize similar-sized haul trucks and shuttles.
As you'll see on the right side of this slide, Constancia's industry-leading efficiencies drive the huge potential we see at the Copper Mountain Mine. The Copper Mountain milling operations have demonstrated the ability to exceed 45,000 tons per day, but such performance has not been consistent.
This has been partly due to the need for capital. Through our extensive due diligence, we believe that over time, we can consistently achieve a milling throughput level of greater than 45,000 tons per day by deploying our operating practices from Constancia. Slide 18 lays out our multi-phase operational plan for the Copper Mountain Mine. Our first phase of integration will be focused on stabilizing the Copper Mountain Mine to have consistent operations.
We also expect to build upon the Copper Mountain team's recent mill initiatives by improving flexibility at the mine, opening several additional mining phases, and focusing on enhancing equipment availability. We'll publish a Hudbay technical report and an updated resource estimate within this first phase of integration.
Following year one, we plan on improving beyond the base operations and evaluating opportunities to expand Copper Mountain beyond nameplate capacity, which we are calling the optimization phase. This would be achieved through low capital initiatives, such as utilizing a SAG mill that Hudbay currently has in storage in Arizona.
In this phase, we would also examine the size of the mining fleet and contractor usage to optimize the structure of the operation. We believe there are several metallurgical opportunities to increase production capacity, and we'll continue to explore additional rollouts of trolley assist.
The region near Copper Mountain remains highly prospective for future exploration success. We would expect to conduct infill and exploratory drilling as part of the optimization phase. Slide 19 shows the significant improvement in our near-term leverage position as a result of this transaction.
Today, Hudbay's standalone net leverage ratio is 2.0x net debt to 12 months trailing EBITDA. On a combined basis, we expect the net leverage ratio to improve to approximately 1.4x based on 2023 street consensus EBITDA. This transaction is expected to enhance our ability to prudently develop the next meaningful copper growth project through a stronger balance sheet and increased operating cash flows, and is consistent with our 3P plan for financing and sanctioning Copper World. This is further discussed on slide 20.
Our improved leverage profile and expanded operations will allow us to more efficiently allocate capital across the business. As we think about the combined portfolio, we expect to immediately pursue high return and short payback initiatives, such as the completion of the first phase of the Stall mill recovery improvement program in Manitoba.
We expect to pursue low risk, minimal capital brownfield expansions such as throughput optimization at the Copper Mountain Mine and the Stall recovery improvement programs. This will position the core business for future transformational initiatives such as our Copper World project in Arizona and better position us for the next wave of consolidation in the copper space. Slide 21 further discusses the three categories of capital allocation opportunities at Hudbay.
Our first priority pipeline opportunity will be focused on stabilizing and upgrading Copper Mountain's operations and unlocking the mine's full potential through applying Constancia's consistent operating efficiency practices. We will also complete the recovery improvement programs that are underway at Stall and Constancia to further enhance operating performance.
We have several brownfield expansion opportunities, including expanding Copper Mountain to increase economies of scale and exploring the Maria Reina and Caballito properties near Constancia to extend mine life. Our Copper World and Mason development projects continue to be key pipeline assets that will serve as the next stage of meaningful copper growth at Hudbay.
After fully integrating the Copper Mountain Mine, we would be in a position to explore additional value-enhancing opportunities across the portfolio. Overall, with a larger portfolio of projects, we can focus our capital and attention on those that generate the highest risk-adjusted returns.
I'll conclude the presentation on the pro forma positioning section starting on slide 22. The combined company has the potential for a valuation re-rating from the benefits of being a larger scale, more diversified, and more liquid copper producer. The pro forma company will fill a unique niche of mid-sized copper companies.
This size of bracket of mid-tier copper companies has garnered significant interest from investors and has historically been very active in industry consolidation. Larger, more diverse companies generally trade at premium multiples. This transaction will create an enhanced company that we believe will be well-positioned to re-rate towards our larger peers with the enhanced production, trading liquidity, and scale. The pro forma company will be well-positioned amongst its core peer group, as shown in slide 24.
The combined company will be of similar scale to Lundin, Capstone, and OZ Minerals, with a leading cash cost position and copper development pipeline. Lastly, slide 25 recaps the strategic rationale for this transaction as its an on-strategy combination for Hudbay and unlocks meaningful value for Copper Mountain shareholders.
The transaction increases company scale, provides attractive geographic diversification, enhances our exposure to copper, allows us to extract further value by utilizing our core operating strengths, positions the balance sheet for further deleveraging, and improves our ability to allocate capital to create sustainable long-term value for both Copper Mountain and Hudbay shareholders. With that, we are pleased to take your questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. Our first question comes from Orest Wowkodaw of Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, and congrats on the transaction. Peter, from a Hudbay perspective, does adding Copper Mountain and focusing on the growth options there, does that implicitly give you more optionality to push out the, call it, the higher CapEx Copper World project to a later date? Is that part of the strategy here?
Morning, Orest, and thanks very much for the well wishes and for your comment. Look, I think what this does really is it accelerates our deleveraging, and it creates a stronger platform on which we can execute these longer term initiatives. I think I've said to you quite frequently that we're not in a rush to build Copper World, and we'll do it in due course.
What this does for us is it puts us in a much stronger position to be able to accelerate our deleveraging and to build a platform that will ultimately enable us to much more easily execute Copper World based on those sort of the 3P principles that Eugene Lei laid out last October.
Okay. Thank you. As a follow-up, I mean, Copper Mountain had its fair share of operating challenges last year. You know, how confident are you that the operating issues there are solvable, and do you see improvement to the current mine plan at Copper Mountain?
Orest, I'm gonna give you a quick answer, and then I'm gonna ask Andre to comment. You know, there is an outstanding team at the Copper Mountain Mine. The key will be integration of the teams to ramp up resources and eliminate bottlenecks. I think, you know, we have the technical bench strength that will facilitate those type of synergistic effect. Andre, perhaps you can comment a little bit further.
Sure. Sure. Thanks, Peter and Orest. Yeah, if I start by when I first went to site, when I walked into the plant and met the people and the like, what I thought was a very well-capitalized mine. The equipment was in great shape. They definitely had a clear strategy on what they needed to and how they're gonna improve the operation.
You know, the timing and, you know, in terms of the speed at which they were working towards call it removing bottlenecks or the like, was somewhat limited by the size and scale of the company. I think the combined company will have access to funds to be able to expedite that.
They've done some significant investment in terms of solving on the grinding and the filter concentration part of the process. There remains a few bottlenecks. There's some very obvious technical solutions to them. One of the key bottlenecks is around their secondary crushing system, and it poses a bottleneck for the mine and the mill.
You know, if you go back in the history for Copper Mountain, they didn't have a secondary grinding circuit. It was, you know, as they went to ramp up, they had some challenges on the hardness of the ore, and it was somewhat of an enduring production field fit type of thing. We have some solutions that we think with working with their teams that we'd like to go through, and we think they're completely solvable.
Then the second part about it, and I think is really, really important is around changing the scale of the mine. The mine did operate, you know, back in 2017, 2018-ish, around 65 million-75 million tons a year, total material movement. It's dropped in recent years for a variety of reasons. Our intention would be to get it back up and get the stripping the mine, opening it up wider so we have access to somewhere between 6-8 benches per year.
What that would allow us to do is to move towards the variable cutoff, which they once did have, and then come to a more sustainable, steady, higher grade for the mine. Maybe not peaks of high grade, but very, a very steady, higher grade than what they've been currently operating at.
The nice thing about this operation, it's in a, it's in a favorable district. You know, the employees, when I saw, they were very well engaged and, you know, they have a great group of people there. So it'd be just around working with the teams at site to have a very concise. It's not a very complicated strategic plan, and they've been working on it already to- date, and we would look to accelerate that with the combined performant company.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Matthew Murphy of Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hello. I'm wondering if you can give any thoughts around how, you know, there's been a few comments over capital constraints in the past at Copper Mountain. Any idea how much CapEx you might be looking to spend in sort of a year one turnaround, how much you might spend on stripping to open up the pit.
Then when you look at the optimization phase, sounds like you can save some costs with, you know, an existing mill, but any ideas around CapEx, and is that in sort of the effort to get to the 65,000 tons per day scenario, or do you see a different ideal level of throughput?
Andre?
Sure. Like Peter said, our plan is, you know, through the course of this year to release a new technical report that will have all of those details in it. Like I mentioned earlier, the mine is well capitalized. They do have the fleet. They have a very large fleet of trucks.
The existing shovel capacity, so for example, their shovels are around 74 tons a bucket or 70-ish tons per bucket, where our ones at Constancia are around 50. At Constancia, we move around 24.5 million tons with our smaller shovels, and they're moving about 25 million tons, 25.5 million tons with those. We think there's some very, very low cost opportunities. Copper Mountain was on the process of working on those.
Some of those opportunities will help us become much more productive very, very quickly, utilizing the existing equipment and capital. One I didn't mention on the other is we also have capital from our other operations.
Peter touched on the SAG mill in Arizona, and one of the challenges to solve the secondary pressure at Copper Mountain, it's an, you know. We need to work with the teams on site, but we do have equipment like a SAG mill. Other operations in Australia use them as AG mills if you have a large enough size to it.
One of the things that we may consider is utilizing a SAG mill that we currently have at Copper World or the old Rosemont that we don't plan on using for the current plan, and converting the two to AG mills and potentially discarding the pebbles and use the existing crusher as a pebble crusher, which would lower the operating costs on a very low CapEx solution. In terms of stripping, that'll come through.
They do have a good plan. I've reviewed the plan for the budget for 2023. There is no rush to do a major shift, we'll have to take some time and work with the teams to understand what really makes the most sense for this year. That'll be outlined in the technical report as we go forward.
Matt.
Okay.
If I could add a little bit to that for Andre's answer. You know, we're gonna be focused on free cash flow generation in the combined company. As Peter outlined in the presentation, we expect this year to be a de-leveraging year for the company combined. We will allocate both the personnel and capital over the next 12 and 24 months, as Andre outlined, to open up the mine and increase efficiencies. There's no significant capital outlay this year that we need to make to make these improvements over the course of the next few years.
Okay, thank you.
Our next question comes from Stefan Ioannou of Cormark. Please go ahead.
Yeah, great. Thanks very much, guys, and congratulations. The transaction makes a lot of sense. Just maybe just a slight follow-up to that, I guess Matt kind of touched on it, but like previously, Copper Mountain had done a lot of work at sort of looking at the next growth step for the mine and, potentially, you know, 65,000 ton a day study was done there. You know, arguably there's room for it to be even bigger than that.
In your due diligence, do you see that potential? Does that factor into your sort of medium to longer term planning, or should we expect to see the Copper Mountain mine within Hudbay, sort of that 45, maybe 50,000 ton a day run rate for the foreseeable future for now?
There you go, Andre.
Sure. That's a great question. I don't wanna punt it off to the NI 43-101 report, but I will in some ways. It's a very large resource, right?
Yeah.
With it being very large resource, at the current throughputs and rates, it's probably something that, you know, it's definitely an opportunity to increase in size and scale. What is the right number? I think that's where we have to work with the teams. Like, we've done a very thorough review.
We have some, you know, really good ideas that our technical teams have done, but also that's from a due diligence stage. I think we have to really work closely with the teams to fine-tune those before we give you an absolute number. Is it 65, 60, or something bigger or less? But it's probably... It's definitely more than what it's currently at. When we see opportunities, like you say, to increase.
It also comes back to what is the right grade, right? Definitely there's room for growth in the copper production on an annual basis. We see that. What the right throughput is something we're gonna have to work with the local teams in the next few months to hone in on what that real number is.
Okay. No, that's fair enough. That's great to hear. I did... Just sorry, my own fault here. Just as a housekeeping question. Just the that mill that's in storage in Arizona, just I wanted to be clear, that wasn't earmarked for Copper World then?
No, no.
No, okay.
We looked at the possibility of using it for Copper World.
Yeah.
With the hardness of the ore and the throughput that we were looking at, we didn't feel it was adequately sized for what we wanna do with it. It, you know, it's rated for about 60,000 tons per day, depending on what the hardness of ore may be.
You know, one of the initial thoughts was potentially is converting, you know, utilizing it at site at Copper Mountain, and then converting both SAG mills to AG mills, which would run at a lower operating cost, and that would solve a lot of the secondary crushing problem or challenge that's faced as a bottleneck for the mine. The existing crushing circuit that they have could be repurposed around the pebble crushing in an optimized way.
Well, that's not day one obviously. That's something we need to work with the teams. There might be better solutions out there that teams have already been thinking of. I think that's the benefit of working, putting the two teams together. We'll come up with some really interesting and innovative things.
There's lots of resources available that, you know, they may see within our company that may be deployed to the operation that we hadn't considered. Really looking forward to getting to work with the teams there and coming up with some novel solutions.
Okay, great. Got it. Thanks very much, guys.
Yeah.
Stefan, I'm just chuckling in the background because I'm thinking that you may be extrapolating and thinking, does that increase the cost or the cost estimate of Copper World? The answer is no.
Sure. Yeah, no, exactly. No, that's great. Thanks again, guys. Appreciate it.
Our next question comes from Jackie Przybylowski of BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Congrats again on the transaction. I was just wondering if you could just maybe give us a little bit more color as to how this came together. How long has you and Copper Mountain been kinda talking? Maybe if you had considered any other strategic options, whether it's acquisition or other, I guess, in this process. Thanks.
Thanks. Thanks, Jackie. Good morning. This has been going on for about a year. I mean, we've been looking at this for a long time. We've done very detailed due diligence on one another. I think that the most important thing has always been that, you know, from Hudbay's side, we've always said, anything that we do has to be accretive on a NAV basis for our shareholders.
You know, clearly, conversely, Copper Mountain had their own criteria to deal with. I think, though, that ultimately what really pulled us together was our view with respect to the unique operational efficiencies and synergies that the combined company has. I'm putting words into Gil's mouth by saying this, you know, I certainly will offer Gil the opportunity to comment.
You know, we think that a single mine like Copper World, absolutely, I'm sorry, Copper Mountain absolutely belongs in an organization with more mines that allows it the flexibility to actually be able to do what it's got to do to get to the next level. Gil, maybe you wanna comment on it, but, you know, this has been going on for a long time, and we've been looking at how to best capture the unique operational efficiencies and synergies.
Yeah.
Gil?
Thanks very much, Peter. Yeah, we actually, Jackie, we see this is an accretive transaction for both groups of shareholders. It certainly allows us to eliminate our single asset risk and allows the acceleration of the development plans that we've always contemplated here. You know, we like the concept that Hudbay has with respect to, you know, their look at, you know, deploying some of their capital assets at Copper Mountain.
We think that that has huge potential with respect to lowering costs and improving production. You know, we're very excited that this creates a leading low cost, American-based copper producer. I mean, we're gonna have a pro forma 2023 production of greater than 550 million pounds of copper equivalent, copper and gold, and the cash costs are extremely low.
That reduced operational risk really comes when you can get the critical mass and have a quality diverse asset portfolio. We think that this combination makes a huge amount of sense for both companies. As Peter, you know, as Peter described in the presentation, there's huge opportunistic synergies for both companies here.
Thanks. Maybe if I could just ask as a follow-up, you guys mentioned in the prepared remarks that you're going to be more focused in North America now than South America, and that makes a lot of sense, especially given the challenges that have been happening in Peru lately.
Can you talk about how... I know you've kinda mentioned this, but can you talk about how this maybe affects your plans to do exploration of future development in Peru? Does this buy you a little bit more time on whether it's Llaguen or the Maria Reina and properties around that area? Is that going to be maybe a lower priority focus for the next couple of years? Thanks.
Thanks, Jackie. I think the way I would characterize it is this rebalances the portfolio, so it doesn't change focus. We remain absolutely committed to Peru and confident in the ability of Constancia to grow its resource base through the opportunities north of the mine at Maria Reina and Caballito.
It absolutely will not slow down our focus on getting those satellites drilled. In fact, I think it enhances our ability to do that. We will continue to implement the exploration program over there. Llaguen is obviously a slower burner, as is Mason, but our focus certainly will not be diminished at all in Peru. I think this platform just allows us the opportunity to enhance that focus. Can I ask, Gil may have a comment too.
I've also gotta say, Jackie, that one of the, I think, exciting opportunities that we saw as Copper Mountain shareholders was the huge exploration potential that this combined company has, where we're excited about the potential that we have at Copper Mountain to be able to discover high-grade zones at our existing deposit.
Now, we're currently engaged in a pretty advanced exploration program this year. We have to say, we really liked the potential of the satellite deposits at Constancia and feel that that whole area has got is highly prospective from an exploration perspective. I would suggest that, yeah, no, a focus on exploration and creating value through the drill bit is something that will happen at Hudbay, and it's gonna pay off for shareholders in the long run.
Wonderful. congrats, Gil and Peter and teams, and thanks very much for answering my questions. Thanks.
Our next question comes from Greg Barnes of TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Just, again, coming back to Copper World and Orest's question at the beginning of whether this would delay your interest in developing Copper World. Wouldn't this actually improve your ability to develop that project given the deleveraging that's gonna happen and the improved cash flow from the combined company?
Morning, Greg, and thanks for answering your own question. I think the answer is absolutely yes. This could certainly accelerate our ability to implement Copper World. I mean, Copper World remains a key initiative for the company.
As I said before, effectively, this combination accelerates our deleveraging and just creates a stronger platform on which to develop Copper World. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I did say we're not in a hurry, and the reason I say that is because I just wanna ensure that everybody understands that the three key conditions that Eugene laid out still remain paramount, but this does enhance our ability to do that.
Yeah. Just again, following up on the first part of Jackie's question, was this a competitive process with Copper Mountain?
No. This was a bilateral process that was conducted between the two companies over time.
Okay. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Pierre Vaillancourt of Haywood. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Actually, Greg asked the question that I was gonna ask. Just since I've got you, do we assume the timeline for Copper World is as, you know, originally planned? You know, do we look for, you know, PFS and, you know, and some in the first half or feasibility study, and in starting up in the second half leading to, you know, a sanction decision in late 2024? I mean, I'm just wondering, you know, to the point you just made, whether it does accelerate or do we just stay with this timetable as is for now or what?
Morning, Pierre. I'll give you two answers. T he first, probably the most important answer is that we will look at this in the framework of the capital allocation program that we have in place, that is gonna be the most important consideration. The second piece is absolutely we're on track to complete the pre-feasibility study first half of the year.
We're on track to we have submitted applications for the permits, the two outstanding permits. We expect those to be issued during the course of this year. Once we have those permits in hand, once we have the pre-feasibility behind us, we will start taking a look at the potential for partnering or joint venture partnering of the assets with a view then to move forward with the definitive feasibility study. Nothing changes in that sense.
Okay, thanks.
Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Our next question comes from John Tumazos of Very Independent Research. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question and maybe for the patience it's gonna require. I apologize, I hadn't been careful in studying Copper Mountain since Newmont sold it in 1988. Your slide 10 shows $100 million of EBITDA, but the financials of Copper Mountain show CAD -25.5 million of EBIT in 2022 and CAD +320.9 million of EBIT in 2021 at lower copper prices.
Please walk us through how we normalize the results of Copper Mountain, and then how much Copper Mountain improves with this CapEx program that you described, but in my unfamiliarity, I probably didn't comprehend at all, as well as the $30 million of synergies you're discussing.
Hi, John. It's Eugene Lei speaking. As Gil and Peter outlined, 2022 was a difficult year for Copper Mountain Mine and the EBITDA or EBIT in 2022 was not representative as we feel what would be the mine going forward. You will have noticed that the Copper Mountain team provided 2023 guidance about a few weeks ago.
I didn't notice. How much is their guidance?
Their guidance is, I believe, 88 million-98 million pounds of copper per year at a C1 cash cost of $2.25 per pound at the midpoint. The EBITDA that we show on slide 10 is actually the street consensus EBITDA for both Hudbay and Copper Mountain combined. It's roughly.
Street consensus appears to discount Copper Mountain's guidance by at least 1/3 at today's copper price.
I think there's a wide range of analysts that cover the stock. We can probably, you know, look at the averages. Given the mine's underperformance in 2022 as was noted, there may be some discount that the street has provided. What, you know, we see here is a potential upside as Andre outlined in getting the mine back and running at full capacity and the future cash flow generation potential. We see this as additive to the company from both a cash flow standpoint this year as well as a net leverage standpoint.
The other point to make is that Copper Mountain owns 75% of the mine, while Mitsubishi Materials owns 25% of the mine. In their financials, it's consolidated as 100%. Given the structures that they currently have in place, they will expect to still get 100% of the free cash flow from the mine for this foreseeable future.
The second part of my question, how much is the improvement potential from the CapEx programs, that maybe were discussed but I didn't fully comprehend lacking background, as well as the $30 million synergies?
From the synergies that we disclosed, we're anticipating we mentioned $30 million of annual synergies coming from corporate synergies as well as operational efficiencies. We expect approximately 50% of that, so call it $15 million a year to be within, to be able to be achieved within the first year. As we outlined, the up to $30 million will be achieved by the third year. The ramp is probably $15 million of efficiencies in the first year, ramping up to, you know, $20 million-$25 million in the second year, and then $30 million in the third year.
We do see opportunities to go actually beyond that. We've been a little bit conservative in not, you know, keeping everything, you know, stating everything upfront. As Andre mentioned, we intend to put out a technical report in the coming months. You know, that's what we see and feel comfortable with in disclosing today. We do see opportunity on that. I don't know if Andre has anything further to add on the mine plan.
I think you covered that well, Eugene.
Following up again, and forgive my persistence, you're not prepared to say how much is the EBITDA contribution from the next investment program contemplated as an alternative for Copper Mountain. You're waiting for the technical report and I'm just being too anxious, right?
Eugene if I. I think there's a lot of work that we have to do. We've done an isolation, right? It was a due diligence process, and it was very thorough, but I think there's a lot of fine-tuning that needs to be done with the people who actually know the mine. You know, we have some ideas on that, but working together, I think we're gonna come up with a really good plan. I think it's just a little premature to say exactly what it is. We have to combine the teams, put our heads together, and I know we're gonna come with something really good.
I don't think Copper Mountain is the lowest grade conventional mill operating copper mine in the world, but after the first cup of coffee, I can't think of one that's lower grade. Is it the lowest grade operating mine in the world with a conventional grinding mill?
Gil?
Yeah. This is Gil Clausen here. No. In fact, we generally operate about 0.3% copper. Our reserve grade is about 0.24% copper. It's pretty typical of mines in British Columbia that also have the benefit of low cost hydropower. Generally, our cost structures are supported by low cost power, et cetera.
The stripping ratio at our operation is relatively low as well. From a cost perspective, just to go further on a little bit perhaps before Hudbay does its optimization review, so to speak, with the rest of the Copper Mountain here.
We've been looking forward to a year of maybe the next five years without any significant increase in capital that would have been similar to what we are forecasting this year in terms of cost and production. There's a lot of opportunity to improve upon that, as Andre outlined here.
I think the upside potential on the resource side and the ability to be flexible with respect to cut off grades, et cetera, and implement that into the mine plan, as we did, as you pointed out, the year in 2021, but in prior years as well, has, you know, allowed this operation to be able to perform at a pretty decent cost basis.
You know, we've always been sitting in the upper second quartile of the cost range as a producer. The opportunity with expansion and the investments that we've put into the mine over the last three years are gonna open up the opportunity to lower those costs and increase production.
I could ask more questions because I'm not current, but thank you for your patience with my uninformed questions.
John, it's Peter Kukielski. I think that, you know, it's a similar grade to Boliden's Aitik mine. To use that.
Our next question comes from Ed Brucker of Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks for the question and congrats on the acquisition. Just some maintenance ones for me. Are you expecting any costs to achieve the $30 million in synergies?
Hi, Ed. It's Eugene here. No, actually, this is $30 million over three years. As I mentioned, $15 million off the top and no cost to gain those synergies.
Got it. There is a small amount of debt at Copper Mountain. Just wanna get your thoughts or I guess your plan to either address that debt or redeem it or assume it. I know there's a lot of cash it looks like on the balance sheet at Copper World, but just wanna get your thoughts.
Sure. As I understand it, there's $80 million of Nordic bonds outstanding. There is a change in control on those bonds to be able to put it at 101. We intend to keep those outstanding as a base case. Obviously, if the holders wanna put it to us, we have ample cash and liquidity to redeem those. We do not intend on adding or refinancing those immediately and adding more debt to our permanent capital structure.
Great. Thanks for the time.
This concludes the question- and- answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Candace Brûlé for any closing remarks.
Thank you, operator, and thank you everyone for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to our investor relations teams. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.