Hudbay and Marubeni Sign Flin Flon Option Agreement to Advance Exploration Partnership

TORONTO, March 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hudbay Minerals Inc. (“Hudbay” or the “company”) (TSX, NYSE: HBM) is pleased to announce the signing of an option agreement (the “Agreement”) with Marubeni Corporation (“Marubeni”), pursuant to which Hudbay has granted Marubeni’s wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary an option (the “Option”) to acquire a 20% interest in three projects located within trucking distance of Hudbay’s processing facilities in Flin Flon, Manitoba, as shown in Figure 1 and further described below. 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 follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the parties that set out the framework for a multi-year exploration partnership, as previously announced in July 2023.

“This exploration partnership with Marubeni represents a significant milestone towards unlocking potential future value in the Flin Flon region,” said Peter Kukielski, Hudbay’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “This arrangement allows us to partner with Marubeni and leverage our operational and exploration expertise to test our large Flin Flon land package to potentially bring another mine into production and utilize Hudbay’s idle processing infrastructure in Flin Flon. Hudbay has discovered and operated 29 mines in our nearly 100-year history in Manitoba and we have the potential to continue that success with this renewed focus on exploration in Flin Flon.”

Masafumi Ichigetsu, General Manager, Copper Mining Dept., Marubeni, commented, “The signing of an option agreement with Hudbay gives us access to the Flin Flon Greenstone Belt, one of the most prospective base metal VMS camps in the world. We see tremendous opportunity to partner with Hudbay’s technical expertise and proven track record of successful discovery, development and operation of many mines in the region. This is our first step to a long-lasting and prosperous relationship with Hudbay that will undoubtedly yield exceptional results.”