Hudbay acquires majority stake in Talbot project

Hudbay Minerals is now the majority owner and operator of the Talbot project in Manitoba, after it exercised its right to buy back a 2% interest in the property from mining junior Rockcliff Metals. As consideration for the buy-back, Hudbay has made a $725,892 (US$550,000) cash payment to Rockcliff, and it now owns 51% of the project with Rockcliff holding the remaining 49%. Once Hudbay takes the project into production, Rockcliff will retain a 35% carried interest in the project through life-of-mine, provided that Rockcliff contributes its pro-rata share of pre-construction capital. The Talbot property is a gold-rich copper asset, hosting indicated mineral resource of 2.2 million tonnes at 2.3% copper, 2.1 g/t gold, 1.8% zinc and 36 g/t silver and an inferred mineral resource of 2.4 million tonnes at 1.1% copper, 1.9 g/t gold, 1.7% zinc and 25.8 g/t silver. Rockcliff, a major landholder in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt of central Manitoba, has been developing the Talbot deposit over the past six years. Compared to 30 mines that have gone into production in the area, Talbot holds the fourth-largest initial resource prior to production, after the past-producing Flin Flon mine and the Lalor and 777 mines. Shares of Hudbay Minerals were down 1.8% by 1:20 p.m. EDT on the TSX, giving the Toronto-based miner a market capitalization of $1.37 billion. Meanwhile, Rockcliff Metals’ stock plunged 12.5%, capping the company’s value at $32.27 million.