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Mitsubishi has agreed to buy what amounts to about a 30% stake in the mine, Copper World developer Hudbay Minerals Inc. announced. Mitsubishi will invest in Copper World LLC, a wholly owned Hudbay subsidiary that will build and operating the mine.

In Mitsubishi, Hudbay will be partnering with a company with extensive experience in the mining business. The company is one of the largest Japanese trading houses with a global mining presence and a significant U.S.-based business, Hudbay said in its news release announcing the investment.

“Mitsubishi is the strategic partner of choice with investments in a world-class portfolio of large and high-quality copper assets,� Hudbay said.

Currently, Mitsubishi Materials, a subsidiary of the parent company, holds interests in four operational mines: Copper Mountain Mine in Canada, and Mantoverde Mine, Los Pelambres Mine and Escondida Mine in Chile, and secures approximately 150,000 tons of copper concentrates annually from them, Mitsubishi Materials says on its website.

“Mitsubishi Materials has invested in overseas mines with the aim of ensuring stable procurement of clean copper concentrates,� the website says.

Mitsubishi’s contribution, which could grow over time if the mine expands as Hudbay officials want to do, amounts to the single biggest outside investment in the mine since Hudbay’s predecessor Augusta Resource Corp. bought private land for the project in the Santa Rita Mountains 20 years ago.

A South Korean-based partnership, United Copper & Moly, agreed to pay $176 million in 2020 to invest in the mine, including $70 million in pre-construction costs and the remaining $106 million once all permits for the mine were in place. But Hudbay bought the partnership out in 2019 for $75 million after one of the partners experienced financial problems.

In more good financial news for the mine, Hudbay also announced Wednesday that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp., formerly known as Silver Wheaton, has agreed to pay up to $70 million for a future, “potential� expansion of a mill at the Copper World site — on top of an initial investment by the company of $230 million.

By itself, the Mitsubishi investment leaves Hudbay only $200 million short of the investment capital it needs to raise for Copper World, the Toronto-based mining company said in its news release Wednesday. It also delays Hudbay’s first contribution to the mine’s capital investments until 2028, the company said.

Mitsubishi’s $600 million initial investment will consist of $420 million at the time the deal is closed and $180 million within 18 months of closing, Hudbay said.

Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, Hudbay had already received more than another $600 million in investments in “cash and cash equivalents,� far exceeding its balance sheet targets, the company’s news release said.

The company plans to advance the project another step next year when it releases a final financial feasibility study for Copper World. The results of that study will play a key role in Hudbay’s ultimate decision on whether and when to start actual construction of the long-delayed project. What the company calls a “sanctioning decision� by its board of directors on starting construction of Phase 1 of Copper World is also due next year, the company says.

“Securing Mitsubishi as a 30% partner in Copper World is an important milestone for Hudbay as we establish a long-term strategic partnership to advance this high-quality copper project ... and to unlock significant value in our copper growth portfolio,� said Peter Kukielski, Hudbay’s president and chief executive officer.

“I have a long history of involvement with joint ventures over my career ... and I’ve seen how strategic joint ventures have built some of the best mines in the world,� said Kukielski, who said he worked with Mitsubishi in the 1990s and 2000s to develop the Antamina Mine in Peru.

“After a highly robust and competitive process, we have selected the premier partner of choice in Mitsubishi. Through this partnership we will leverage our complementary strengths to deliver our world-class Copper World project, produce domestic copper in the U.S. for the U.S. critical minerals supply chain and create value for all our stakeholders.�

Participating in Copper World is of significant strategic importance for Mitsubishi towards realizing its growth strategy within the copper sector, a Mitsubishi official was quoted as saying in Hudbay’s news release.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Hudbay, whose operational and development expertise is well-recognized and proven, to advance a definitive feasibility study. Drawing on our knowledge in copper mining investment developed through partnerships with global mining companies, and extensive business experience in North America developed over many years across diverse sectors including mineral resources trading, we aim to unlock the full potential of Copper World together with Hudbay,� said Taro Abe, chief operating officer of Mitsubishi’s Critical Minerals Division, Mineral Resources Group.

The announcement apparently ends a six-year search by Hudbay for a long-term joint venture partner to help finance the mine’s construction tab. As it was buying out United Copper & Moly in 2019, Hudbay announced it would soon launch an effort to find such a partner.

Since then, the project has at times struggled, thanks to a pair of federal court rulings in 2019 and 2020 that prevented construction of Hudbay’s Rosemont Mine on the Santa Ritas’ east slope, rulings that stemmed from lawsuits brought by some of the mine’s opponents.

But since then, Hudbay, which bought Augusta in 2014, has shifted its emphasis from developing the old Rosemont Mine site on private and federal land on the Santa Ritas’ east slope to strictly private land on the west slope, significantly increasing at least the mine’s short-term prospects.

It’s received at least four permits from Arizona agencies for the new mine, led by air quality and groundwater protection permits issued by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

Two lawsuits against the mine and the state are still pending: one opposing the air quality permit and a second opposing the state Land Department’s 2022 decision to grant the company a right-of-way through a small slice of the state-owned Santa Rita Experimental Range to build an underground mine tailings pipeline.

But even if successful, neither of the lawsuits is likely to stop the mine from being built. A successful challenge to the air quality permit would simply force the state to revise the permit, most likely to increase state oversight and monitoring of the mine’s air emissions.

If the courts throw out the Land Department’s right-of-way for the tailings pipeline, Hudbay most likely would have to get it re-routed through U.S. Bureau of Land Management land, which would require much more environmental scrutiny and delay the mine but not likely stop it, given the Trump administration efforts to fast-track mining projects on federal land.