Hudbay Minerals Inc. (HBM) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Hudbay Minerals, Inc. second quarter, 2026 results 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 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may reach an operator by pressing star, then 0. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded today, July 29, 2026, at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. I will now turn the conference over to Candice Brule, Senior Vice President, Capital Markets and Corporate Affairs. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning and welcome to HUD-based second quarter 2026 results conference call. Hudbay's financial results were issued this morning and are available on our website at www.hudbay.com. A corresponding PowerPoint presentation is available in the Investor Events section of our website, and we encourage you to refer to it during this call. Our presenter today is Peter Kekilski, Hudbay's Chief Executive Officer. Accompanying leader for the Q&A portion of the call will be Eugene Lee, our President and Chief Financial Officer, Andre Lauzon, our Chief Operating Officer, who will be retiring in September, and Rob Carter, our Senior Vice President of Canadian Operations and incoming Chief Operating 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 CDAR Plus 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. And now I'll pass the call over to Peter Kekilski.

Thank you, Candice. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Before we begin with a quarter, I'd like to highlight two key executive leadership promotions. Eugene Lee has been appointed as President and Chief Financial Officer of HUD-Bay, and Rob Carter has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer, transitioning from Andre Lauzon, who will retire at the end of September. I strongly believe these leadership changes will position HUD-Bay for the next phase of transformational growth, and I could not be prouder to announce these appointments today. The appointment of Eugene Lee as President is a significant milestone for HUD-Bay and recognizes his passion and strategic vision for the long-term success of the company. Eugene was instrumental in a significant transformation of the company since becoming CFO in 2022. He successfully executed the strategic plan to unlock Copperworld, including achieving our stated balance sheet targets ahead of schedule and helping to facilitate the Copperworld partnership with Mitsubishi. He was the architect behind our holistic capital allocation framework, which positioned the company to embark on generational investments across the business, while also increasing shareholder dividends for the first time in more than a decade. His deep knowledge of the business and strong collaboration with operations and finance have been central to driving significant free cash flow generation, accelerating the de-risking of our growth pipeline, and positioning HUD-Bay for continued long-term value creation. Rob Carter's appointment as Chief Operating Officer recognizes the significant impact he has had on the business through his successful strategic oversight of our Canadian operations. His leadership in Manitoba revitalized the operations into becoming what I have termed the golden child of HUD Bay and a sustainable cash flow contributor. Over the past year, he has brought that expertise to our British Columbia operations. I am extremely proud of the best practices his team has implemented at Cop Mountain, and they are well on their way to becoming a sustainable cash flow contributor. Rob's deep focus on safety and continuous improvement is contagious, and I look forward to seeing him implement that positive culture throughout the entire operating platform. It is bittersweet to announce Andre's upcoming retirement. He has been a key contributor to our operational success in being able to deliver on our many growth objectives. At the same time, I want to congratulate him on his retirement. For those who know Andre, you may know that implementing management systems is very important to him. I have no doubt his legacy will live on at HUD-Bay through the many systems he put in place to ensure continued efficiency and long-term success. As CEO of HUD-Bay, I look forward to continuing to work closely with both Eugene and Rob in executing our strategy to deliver strong cash flow from our diversified operating platform while unlocking value in our growth pipeline for all our stakeholders. With that, I will now discuss our second quarter operating and financial performance, starting on slide three. HUD-Bay delivered another quarter of steady operating performance and industry-leading margins. We achieved record trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA of $1.3 billion, driven by our unique copper and gold diversification and focus on cost control across the business. During the second quarter, our operations delivered consolidated copper production of 28,000 tons and gold production of 51,000 ounces. Copper production increased from the first quarter with British Columbia operations achieving higher mill throughput, more than offsetting the lower plant mill throughput in Peru. Consolidated gold production was lower, primarily due to lower milled gold grades. We are on track to achieve our full-year production guidance for all metals. We continue to achieve industry-leading margins during the second quarter with consolidated cash costs of negative 40 cents per pound of copper and sustaining cash costs of $1.39 per pound of copper. Our diversified operations in Canada and Peru continue to achieve operating efficiencies and deliver strong gold byproduct credits, which have more than offset external cost pressures and allowed us to improve our 2026 consolidated cash cost guidance. During the second quarter, we realized quarterly revenues of $631 million and adjusted EBITDA of $321 million. Operating cash flow before change in non-cash working capital was $210 million, remaining relatively consistent with the first quarter. Adjusted net earnings attributable to owners were $114 million, or $0.28 per share. Slide 4 highlights the consistent delivery of free cash flow as a result of our steady operating performance and expanding margins. With our enhanced balance sheet and diversified free cash flow generation, we are well positioned to fund our attractive growth pipeline. While most of our revenues continue to be derived from copper, revenue from gold represents a meaningful portion of total revenues with 38% of gross revenues from gold in the second quarter. Our cost control efforts continue to focus on navigating external cost pressures, such as higher fuel prices and consumable costs. We continue to manage costs and deliver strong margins through initiatives to further improve throughput and enhance operating efficiencies. We are well insulated from these external cost pressures due to our diversified operating platform, with significant byproduct credits from gold production and the polymetallic nature of our ore deposits. After accounting for our sustaining capital investments, but before growth investments, we generated over $100 million in free cash flow during the quarter, similar to the first quarter. Over the last 12 months, we have generated more than $400 million of free cash flow, which has further solidified our financial strength and positioned us well to prudently reinvest in high return growth opportunities across the business to enhance our exposure to copper and gold. As of June 30, our total liquidity was over $1 billion, including $890 million in cash and cash equivalents, and $154 million available on our revolving credit facilities. At the end of the quarter, we had a net cash position of $80 million, bringing our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio to negative 0.1 times, the lowest level in more than a decade. Turning to slide 5, our Peru operations continued to demonstrate steady operating performance with production and costs in line with full-year expectations. The operations produced 19,000 tons of copper, 5,000 ounces of gold, 565,000 ounces of silver, and 277 tons of molybdenum during the second quarter. Production was slightly lower compared to the first quarter, in line with expectations due to the planned semi-annual plant maintenance shutdown. We continue to be on track to achieve our 2026 production guidance for all metals in Peru. Total material moved in Peru was 24 million tons during the second quarter of 2026, and in May, the highest monthly total material moved over the last 10 years was achieved. The team realized improved productivity from enhanced fleet efficiency and the implementation of haulage optimization strategies. Mill throughput levels averaged approximately 86,000 tons per day in the quarter. We received permit amendments to further increase annual milling capacity at Constantia to 34 million tons per annum from the previous 31 million tons. This permit update enables additional capacity to further optimize Constantia's operations and deliver strong copper production. We continue to advance the installation of pebble crushes at Constantia to increase mill throughput rates starting in the third quarter of 2026. Milled copper grades decreased slightly compared to the first quarter due to blending targets implemented to control contaminants in the concentrate. Sales volumes were impacted by a temporary buildup of concentrate inventory at the port caused by ocean swells that resulted in temporary port closures and delayed scheduled shipments. As a result, approximately 10,000 dry metric tons of copper concentrate sales were deferred to early July. Second quarter cash costs in Peru were $1.66 per pound of copper. This increase compared to the first quarter was due to lower gold byproduct credits with the depletion of the Pampacuncha gold stockpile in Q1, higher fuel prices, and the planned semi-annual plant maintenance shutdown. Ash costs outperformed the low end of the 2026 guidance range despite external cost pressures, positioning the operations well to achieve the full year guidance range. Moving to our Manitoba operations on slide 6, we continued to execute our strategic initiatives during the quarter, navigating short-term operational hurdles while positioning the business for an expected strong second half of the year. Our Manitoba operations produced 40,000 ounces of gold, 2.3 thousand tons of copper, 4.8 thousand tons of zinc, and 209 thousand ounces of silver in the second quarter. Compared to the prior quarter, gold and copper production was lower due to lower tons milled. Production in the second half of 2026 is expected to be higher than the first half due to grade sequencing and higher ore output from Lalor, and we have reaffirmed full-year production guidance for all metals in Manitoba. To address labor availability constraints in the quarter, we engaged an experienced mining contractor to advance the 1901 deposit. This strategic decision has enabled the team to redeploy our skilled internal workforce to other critical development areas at Lalor. We have simultaneously increased our internal capacity by onboarding and upskilling several new employees to enhance long-term operational self-sufficiency. The Lalor mine hoisted an average of 3,500 tons of ore per day in the quarter. While the operations experienced minor production impacts from an unplanned hoist gearbox failure in June, the hoist is now repaired and fully operational, and the team strategically prioritized high-value gold zones to maintain consistent feed for New Britannia. The 1901 deposit delivered approximately 7,600 tons of development ore in the quarter and continues to progress toward full production in late 2027. The New Britannia mill processed approximately 1,900 tons per day in the second quarter, matching the gold ore output from LALOR. New Britannia continued to achieve steady gold recoveries of approximately 90%. The stall mill processed less ore than the prior quarter, consistent with the LALOR base metal production. The stall mill achieved gold recoveries of 71% in the second quarter, continuing to reflect recovery-focused initiatives. We have initiated early works on installing new tailings lines between the two mills which is expected to increase pipeline capacity to enable higher throughput and leaching of gold-bearing tailings material at New Britannia from base metal ore originally processed at Stahl. Manitoba gold cash costs in the second quarter were $776 per ounce. The increase compared to the first quarter was primarily due to lower gold production and higher unit operating costs across mining, milling, and G&A. Despite the increase, cash costs were within the guidance range for 2026, and we remain on track for achieving full-year cash cost guidance for Manitoba. At our operations in British Columbia, we continue to focus on advancing our multi-year optimization plans as outlined on slide 7. Copper Mountain produced 6.5,000 tons of copper, 5.6,000 ounces of gold, and 71,000 ounces of silver in the second quarter. Production increased compared to the first quarter for all metals as a result of higher ore mined, improved grades, and higher mill throughput. We continue to expect higher production in the second half of the year as the mill improvement projects take effect, and we are on track to achieve our 2026 production guidance in British Columbia. Milled copper grades during the second quarter of 2026 were higher compared to the first quarter. However, copper and gold recoveries during the quarter declined due to the ramp-up of mill throughput during the quarter, which revealed a grinding constraint in the ball mills. Several grinding initiatives are underway, alongside flotation, advanced process controls to improve recoveries. British Columbia saw cash costs of $3.22 per pound of copper. Costs were higher than the prior quarter, primarily as a result of higher mining costs, less deferred stripping, and lower byproduct credits. Although the second quarter cash costs were above the 2026 guidance range due to external cost pressures, we expect to achieve the full-year cash cost guidance in British Columbia. The next slide highlights the significant progress we have made with our optimization efforts at Copper Mountain. Mining activities reached a record total material movement of 30 million tons in the second quarter. As part of the accelerated stripping program, this production resulted in a record daily average mining rate of 331,000 tons per day ahead of budget. This ramp-up was supported by the successful commissioning of a new production shovel in April. During the quarter, blending initiatives from the main pit maintained stable ore feed to the mill, allowing the operation to prioritize waste-stripping activities to expose higher value mining fronts in the future. The mine is now positioned favorably to unlock high-grade copper from the main pit starting later this year. During the second quarter, the mill processed 3.6 million tons of ore which increased 17 percent compared to the first quarter of 2026 despite operating constraints on the primary sag mill the quarterly mill throughput averaged approximately 40 000 tons per day the highest quarterly average achieved since our acquisition mill performance continues to demonstrate the benefits from the second sag mill and the mill optimization initiatives. The primary sag mill was temporarily shut down in late June and will be offline for approximately one month to replace the feed and head. The replacement is tracking on schedule and will remove the constraints previously in place due to the liner erosion event that occurred late last year. While repairs are underway in the primary sag mill, the second sag continues to operate. The mill remains on track to achieve its permitted capacity of 50,000 tons per day in the second half of 2026. During the quarter, the new Ingebel project achieved a significant milestone, celebrating the official groundbreaking of the project expansion. The event was attended by executives, the BC Minister of Mining and Critical Minerals, the chief of the Upper Similkameen Indian Band, and regional leaders and representatives of the community. The groundbreaking comes shortly after the government of British Columbia added New Ingebel to its list of priority resource projects recognizing initiatives that support economic growth, responsible resource development, and create long-term value across the province. New Ingebel enhances the copper and gold production profile and secures a longer mine life at Copper Mountain. The project is designed to access higher grade mineralization while improving operational efficiency with a stripping ratio approximately three times lower than current mining areas. We are advancing critical infrastructure required for the expansion, including the construction of an access road, a bridge across the Similkameen River, and the development of an East Hall road to link New Ingerbelt with existing operations. We have also initiated a targeted drilling program focused on upgrading existing inferred resources to reserves. Growth capital expenditures in British Columbia in 2026 are expected to increase by approximately $30 million to $115 million related to additional costs associated with infrastructure development at New Ingebel. The brownfield investments we are making in our operating portfolio will result in consolidated copper production increasing by 24% to approximately 150,000 tons next year, as shown in slide 10. We also continue to take significant steps towards enhancing our attractive copper growth pipeline. At Copperworld, feasibility activities are progressing well, with 95% of the engineering work completed and a sanctioning decision remains on track for later this year. The DFS is expected to reflect higher capital expenditures as compared to the 2023 pre-feasibility study, primarily due to typical cost inflation along with new capital related to project scope changes that would allow for future mill expansion optionality while continuing to generate robust economics. On June the 24th, Copper World received proceeds of $52 million in long-term, low-cost, non-amortizing U.S. municipal bonds carrying a fixed interest rate of 4.5% and an initial mandatory tender date of July the 2nd, 2036. We completed the acquisition of Arizona Sonoran in June, adding the Cactus Project to our significant U.S. copper growth business. As shown in slide 11, the transaction brings together two highly complementary copper growth assets in Arizona and strengthens HUD-based position as a premier America's focused copper company with a pipeline of long-life, low-cost assets located in Tier 1 jurisdictions. High-quality copper assets are scarce globally, especially in good mining jurisdictions, and Cactus is the highest-grade undeveloped open-pit copper oxide project in the world. as seen on slide 12. Cactus enhances our long-term copper production profile, expands the U.S. growth pipeline, and is expected to generate significant operational efficiencies and regional synergies with the staged development of Copper World and Cactus. The staged development of the two projects will allow us to utilize the full potential of our Arizona technical team by advancing Copper World through definitive feasibility studies and towards a sanctioning decision later this year while focusing on integrating CACTUS into our Arizona business, advancing permitting activities, and kicking off an updated pre-feasibility study. We expect to spend approximately $30 million at CACTUS in the second half of 2026 on the updated pre-feasibility study, performing site de-risking activities, and conducting exploration activities. The updated Cactus PFS is expected to be completed in the second half of 2027. The Cactus project envisions a simple operation with a conventional open pit mine and a heap bleach and SXCW facility to produce Made in America copper cathode. It is a brownfield site with key infrastructure already in place, which together with the high copper grade makes the upfront capital intensity attractive. With Cactus expected to come into production after Copperworld, we will be able to leverage our skilled team at Copperworld and our comprehensive regional knowledge to apply to the future development of Cactus. This will include replicating our Copperworld development and permitting success at Cactus, redeploying our trained construction team, and realizing project efficiencies and cost savings. Together, the two assets expand our strategic footprint in the United States, positioning us as one of only a few operators capable of producing refined copper domestically to support the U.S. critical mineral supply chain. Our third development asset in the United States, the Mason Project, is a large-scale open-pit copper project in Nevada, with the potential to be the third-largest copper mine in the United States. During the quarter, we commenced pre-feasibility study activities at Mason, and we expect the study to be completed in the second half of 2027. As we continue to advance all these attractive growth initiatives across the portfolio, we remain committed to prudently at allocating capital to the highest risk-adjusted return opportunities under our holistic capital allocation framework. Concluding on slide 13, our focus on demonstrating continued operational excellence while prudently advancing our many organic growth opportunities will deliver significant copper production Looking ahead, our growth roadmap is clear. By next year, our attractive brownfield investments are expected to increase production by 24%. By the end of the decade, copper world will increase annual copper production levels by 70% to approximately 250,000 tons. And with the stage development of cactus and mason to follow, we have a line of sight to 500,000 tons of copper by the middle of the next decade. What sets Hubbay apart is its low-risk, low-capital intensity growth located in some of the best mining jurisdictions in the world, underpinned by our unique diversification in copper and gold exposure, strong margins, and a rock-solid balance sheet. We have the right assets, the right team, and the financial strength to execute on our strategic plans and are fully committed to delivering significant value for all of our stakeholders. And 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 1 on your telephone keypad. You'll hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, press star then 2. Our first question comes from Orest-Wakadau with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, and just also wanted to say congrats to Eugene and Rob, and good luck to Andre in his retirement. In terms of the quarter itself, the release did cite labor availability issues at LALOR in the second quarter. Has that now been fully cleared, and have mining rates returned to normal levels at the start of the third quarter?

Morning, Oris, and thanks for the question, and thanks on behalf of Rob, Eugene, and Andre for your kind comments. The short answer to your question is yes, but I'll let Andre and Rob dig into it a little bit further.

Yeah, sure. Thanks, Oris. Yeah, so the team's done an amazing job. It is a hot market out there for people, obviously, and they've put together a series of medium and very short-term actions. They've hired, I think it's about 100 people. They have put in place programs to train local people to retain the workforce. They've, like Peter mentioned in the discussion, talked about bringing in contractors. We have embedded contractors supplementing our crews as well as contractors taking over the 1901 temporarily while we deploy really skilled people through. And so in short, in short, the answer is yes. And although bringing these contractors in is in the ramp up phase, the team has really taken the opportunity to focus on efficiencies. and, you know, over the last month we've seen probably as much as 10% improvement in terms of efficiencies that we'll be able to build on as we go forward in the future. Rob, is it today listening?

Yeah, Andre, I think that's a really good summary. Hi there, Horace. Yeah, so we've worked on, like, multi-pronged approach on this. I think we recognize this maybe at the beginning of the year. So a lot of heavy lifting was done in Q2. Andre hit the high points on it yeah we've hired an experienced mining contractor to advance 1901 kind of really allowed us to redeploy our people into the critical areas at Lawler we also touched on a little bit is that we further enhanced our our embedded contractor workers specifically around development miners and bolter operators so that's basically well in place here right now and then right like bringing on a hundred or onboarding a hundred new employees and upskilling them so it's been a little bit of a journey for us and the teams recognized that a number of months ago it was on site there and

June in July and we've seen a significant uptick on our production because of these proactive measures we put in place thanks just as a follow-up on manitoba should we can we still anticipate an updated mine plan technical report on manitoba to come out i believe in september i think uh i mean as you know ours we've got a we've had a lot of exploration and engineering activities underway which could potentially add production and mine life extensions in snow lake so based on the progress of the exploration activities and mine optimization efforts we're confident that we'll be able to demonstrate some improved long-term profile for Snow Lake based on reserves only. As you know, we have a visit to Manitoba later on in the year, and you can probably comment on this further then.

Next question is from Richard Garcicidorino with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and congrats on all the progress. My first question is on Copperworld. It looks like you've made some solid progress there now at 95% engineering. Just wondering, you mentioned CapEx is going to be higher than the 2023 pre-fees. How should we think about the magnitude of that as well as, you know, the opportunities that you may have in terms of creating a district there? You know, talk about the potential for future mill expansion optionality. If you could touch on that, that would be great.

Morning, Richard, and thanks for the question. And in a sense, you've answered the question yourself. So, of course, we live in inflationary times, as you know, and there will definitely be increases to the initial capital of Copper World since the PFS figure, which we published three years ago. What I would say is that in addition to typical cost inflation, There will be some additional capital related to project scope changes that will allow for future mill expansion optionality. And you may recall that one of the new terms in the renegotiated precious metals stream last year is the additional payment from wheat and precious metals if we expand the mill by year five. So we're looking at how to optimize a project designed to maintain future mill expansion optionality. So that said, of course, we're seeing higher copper prices today, so there's a much more bullish long-term view of copper prices given the supply-demand fundamentals, and so the price movement will likely offset any potential cost changes. So the economics of the project will be robust no matter what. To your point about development of district-scale business, there are massive synergies between Cactus and Copperworld, and the key synergy obviously is created through the construction ultimately of the concentrate leach facility, which will then provide acid for mason, which is one of the highest cost components of mason. The other synergy between the two is the staging of the projects and the utilization of the same team to continue from one project to the next. So we will ultimately deploy the study team from Copper World to Mason to update, sorry, to Cactus, excuse me, to update the Cactus pre-feasibility study so that we can then move into definitive feasibility study, upgrade, or update the permits, etc. So it's one workforce or one team that's going to be doing the work. And the same will apply to construction. As we move off copper world construction, we'll move into mason construction. It's a much simpler project being a heat bleach and SSCW plant only. So we get the benefit of time, skill, and utilization of the same workforce, which provides cost benefits. Back to the question on capital with respect to copper world, I'm sure the question in your mind is what is the magnitude of the increase in CapEx? And what I can say is that I don't know the answer to that today because we're following an integrated project delivery approach whereby we have contractors who participate in the oversight of the project and we are waiting for some of the data from some of those contractors with respect to their experience in the space to fill the buckets of the estimate so until that's completed I don't know exactly what the capital will be but it's going to be higher for sure there's no doubt about that I don't think it's a blowout by any stretch of the imagination but the combination of of increased price increased capital as well as the increase price environment, it sure ensures that we are going to have a highly robust project no matter what.

Great. Thanks. And since you mentioned CACTUS, it looks like you're going to be spending about $30 million this year to conduct some de-risking, some exploration activities. The pre-feeds is expected in 2027. So should we expect more CAPEX next year as well?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And we'll provide those details in due course as we go through the capital reviews later on in the year. Great. You're welcome.

The next question is from Lawson Winder with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, Peter, Eugene, Rob, and Andre. And congratulations to everybody who's getting a promotion or a role change. If I could ask about just one quick follow-up on Copperworld. On timing, is it reasonable to expect the release of the PFS before the end of Q3, or could it be something we might expect with, like, Q3 results in late October or early November?

Morning, Lawson, and thanks for the question. I would say it's hard for me to tell you to pinpoint exactly when it will be, but I expect it to be later rather than earlier because we're going through internally. We need to go through our own internal target process. At the same time, Mitsubishi has to go through their processes. So we don't want to sort of release the DFS in advance of completing our internal processes. So I would say it is more likely to be kind of early Q4 than in Q3.

Okay, that's great.

Thank you very much.

And if I could just add, we are on track for a FID decision later this year, which will put us in a position to have first production in the second half of 2029. So the time, while the DFS, we're still completing the final reviews of it, the FID is on track for 2026.

Okay, very helpful. Thank you, Eugene and Peter. As a follow-up, can I ask about the gearbox motor failure at Lawler? Can you just walk us through what the root cause of that would have been, of that failure, and then just can you clear up for us if that was an isolated equipment event or perhaps just a maintenance, or was it something more structural?

Yeah, it was very much an isolated event, but I think Rob would give you a little bit more detail on it. it was the team did an excellent job you know they turned it over in a few days and with a critical spare on site but Rob may have some details it was it was truly a anomaly but yeah I can add a little maybe a little bit of additional color there um Lawson Andre on that um yeah like first of all the team reacted really quickly like Andre mentioned right we did have a critical spare on site so it was put back safely over over several days right so there was a failure on it we are reviewing the root cause analysis on it but there was like a shaft and gear premature failure that occurred and we got the the other one out now and it's getting refurbished and it'll be our critical spare we don't foresee this to be a problem in the future, and it's very isolated, what Andre mentioned.

And then just to be clear, is it fair to expect no meaningful impact on Q3 or Q4?

Yeah, so this was an isolated incident in June, right? So, it happened, I think, in the first 10 days of June, and we are back going within, like, several days, and it's been operating well.

Great. Thank you very much.

The next question is from Anita Soni with CIBC World Markets. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Congratulations to everyone getting a promotion today. I just wanted to ask about Copper Mountain and BC and how your throughput will evolve in Q3 and Q4. So I know you said you're on track for 50K ton per day in the second half, But can you just remind me what SAG 1 should be operating at when it comes back online? And I assume that's in August that it's coming back online.

Yeah, I can answer that on our throughput, really, at Copper Mountain. Things are going quite well, right? So let's just analyze a little bit of Q2 a little bit, right? The mill throughput increases that we've seen in Q2, which were, I believe, a record in the quarter since we've acquired Copper Mountain. The second SAG mill and the mill optimization process are going quite well. In the press release, I think we also mentioned that the second SAG reached its commercial production. We averaged around 12,000 tons per day. And lately, in late June and early July, we've actually seen ramp-up of the secondary sag up to 20,000 tons per day. So seeing great things out of that. On a go-forward basis, our second sag will consistently operate somewhere in the range of about 15,000 to 18,000 tons. And then to give you an update on the primary sag on the feed-end head replacement, so we were shut down for approximately a month, started late June, and as of yesterday we started back up. So congratulations to the team on, I'd say, all the hard work that was done and all the planning and all the scheduling and everything else to kind of safely replace that feed-end head. In the quarter, we also seen some really positive days out of the Copper Mountain Mill, right? Days, we had some several days in the 45,000 to 50,000 tons when we were operating the compromised SAG 1, the primary SAG, as well as our SAG 2. So we're fairly confident there'll be a small commissioning here and ramping up. We're fairly confident we can achieve the 50,000 tons here later in the second half of this year.

Could you just remind me what the nameplate of SAG-1 itself is?

Yeah, it's about 40,000 tons, and we're going to operate the SAG-1 around 35 to kind of 45, and it will complement what we're doing with SAG-2.

Thank you. That's it for my question.

The next question is from Praha Tariq with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. The updated cost guidance, can you just talk a little bit about the operational efficiencies that were mentioned in the press release? Are there any specific examples you can point to, whether it's Manitoba or Peru?

Hi, it's Eugene speaking. So, again, we're pleased to improve our cost guidance here based on a number of factors. One of the factors would be the continued strong performance in terms of throughput, better than expectations in the first half of the year, as Rob mentioned, in particular in B.C., seeing the highest quarterly average since we acquired it. We're looking for higher production in the second half of the year in Manitoba, as well as implementing the pebble crushers in the second half of the year in Peru. So in terms of the outlook, the year-to-date cash costs are approximately negative $1. Our forecast for the year is significantly better than the initial range of negative $0.10 to negative $0.30 to allow us to improve that. A lot of that is baked in from the gold price that we were able to realize in the first half of the year, and our assumptions for the second half of the year give us flexibility for the gold price to drop to below $3,500 and still meet this improved cost guidance. So I think there's a lot of runway for us from our forecasting on both the production end in terms of throughput, as well as on realization of the cost of the byproduct credits. Lastly, the impacts of the higher fuel and input costs that I think everyone in the industry is experiencing. We are fairly insulated from that. I would say that for every $10 change in WTI oil, which we budgeted at $65 a barrel earlier this year, today obviously closer to $95 a barrel. For every $10, it's about $0.04 per pound on the cash cost. So I think we are, as a company, quite insulated from that. And so we feel confident with these three factors feeding into the estimate that we can improve the cost guidance for the rest of the year and have room for continued improvement as we realize the third and fourth quarter.

Okay, great. And then maybe just switching gears to Arizona, just thinking about sequencing and staging of the different projects, can you just remind us why Copper World Phase 2 wouldn't precede Cactus? In the final slide of the presentation, why would CACTUS come first?

Well, because it's a question of permitting, number one. CACTUS obviously will be fully permitted by then and will be able to move the workforce straight from the one to the other. We would not even seek to permit Phase 2 before Phase 1 is in operation, and permitting in the United States takes a certain amount of time. I think that there's a positive environment or a constructive environment for permitting right now, but it would still nevertheless take several years to permit phase two.

Okay, got it. Great. Thank you so much. Those are all my questions.

The next question is from Craig Hutchinson with TD Collins. Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my questions. I just want to circle back on the Copper Mountain question, just on the throughput. So, during the downtime of the primary sag mill, should we assume throughput through the balance of most of July was around 15,000 to 20,000 tons a day? That's my first question. And the second question, just with regards to grades, should we expect the period material to pick up in grades to the second half of this year?

Yes. I'll take it first, and then if I miss anything, Sandhria. So, yeah, we ran sag two for the majority of the month. you're pretty close on the tonnage. There was a liner change that we had to do on that one, which took it out for a few days, but you're pretty close, and we ran it through through the course of the month. For the later part of the year, the good thing about the mine, like Rob had mentioned and Peter in the notes, is they've been stripping at extremely high rates, and at really low cost, like $2.20 a ton U.S., like really good. And so what that's done is through the course of this shutdown where we're doing the feed-in, they build up a lot of ore. So the stockpiles are at what we call record highs, probably 350,000 tons, large ore pile in front of the crusher. So the driver at Copper Mountain is stripping to unlock the high grade. And in the last quarter of the year, you're going to see much higher grades than the last half of the year overall. And then to clarify a little bit on the last one, if you add up the two to really simplify it, is SAG 2 can run, call it around 20,000 tons a day, and SAG 1 can run at 40-ish, that's 60,000 tons a day. And so the mill can run at 80% availability and still achieve the throughput. So we're really confident going in with this ore that's built up in front of the crusher now and large stockpile that we build up on the second half of the year.

Okay, great to hear. And if I can just circle back on Horace's question about the technical rewards coming out for the Manitoba operations. There was a discussion, I think, at the last call about the potential to extend mine life to, you know, five to ten years at that 180,000-ounce range. Can we expect some kind of PEA or scoping level study on what that mine life extension could look like sometime around the site visit later this year?

Yeah, it's Rob Carter. I think that seems very reasonable, right? So we're obviously working diligently on that. I've done a lot of exploration work underground at Lawler in 1901 to kind of enhance our deposit that we have there, as well as the other satellite deposits, when they're going to be coming into the production profile and everything of the like. You know, I got some first blush looks at a number of things, right, so on updating reserves and the like, and that's roughly what we're working towards is a five-year really enhanced gold production profile for the Snow Lake operations.

All right. Thanks, guys.

Once again, if you have a question, please press star then 1. The next question is from Dalton Barreto with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Operator. Good morning, Peter and team. I wanted to start by asking about Constantia. So you're permitted now to get up to 34 million tons per annum. And with the 10% overrun, you're at 37.5. You're running at 31 right now. Is there a plan to eventually get up to 37? How advanced is that?

And when do you think we can see it? sir i'll give you a little bit of insight so like there's lots going on in peru and it's quite exciting so originally we were just looking at the one at the one pebble crusher and then with you know we were ahead of schedule on getting the the new permit to 30 to 34 million tons so the team's working on a number of things one of the first one is within the mine they're very focused on the fragmentation and and the you know real-time analysis in the pit and and we're seeing days both today you know on spot basis of over a hundred thousand tenths per day you know on average you know the permits on an average were a long period but normally that we were running in in the low 90s right and so we're seeing significant improvement despite having some harder material with just dealing with the fragmentation and blast blasting we're putting in the two crushers Those will be in with the instrumentation probably like September-ish in that range. And those will bring us to a new level and maintain the recoveries with the flotation. Now, what we don't know is we have theoretical calculations on exactly what those pebble crushers will give us. and the combination of the fragmentation, the pebble crushers, and we're also looking at, in some cases, pebble sorting, what would the final outcome, but it's definitely chasing the number that you said in terms of the long term, and we're looking at trying to do that without a third-line expansion, and so it's quite exciting, and all relatively low capex with improvements that the team's doing. They're also, the one thing I didn't mention is they're also doing modifications on ball sizes within both the sag and ball mills and trying to increase throughput. And they're trialing one line versus another, and they're seeing lots of positives there. So I think there's more to come in terms of the throughputs, and we'll have more confidence as we turn on those pebble crushers. Eugene, do you want to add?

Yeah, Andre, if I could add that our guidance is based on achieving this 34 million tons for the next three years. So that's 34 million tons in the fourth quarter and in 27 and 28. So with the opportunity to go above that through some of the enhancements that Andre has spoken of and the team is working on, There would be upside to the production levels in the medium term if we're able to do more than 34 million tons. But we are permitted to now operate at 34 million tons, and that was factored into our three-year guidance. The opportunity to operate beyond that would be an additional upside.

Thanks, guys. And maybe, Eugene, I can stay with you here. Post-FID, you're going into construction at a time when the administration is sort of building a tariff wall around the country. Are there any of the major inputs that you can lock in at sanction, or are you exposed over the construction period?

Those are considerations in all of our sourcing, and we've been in discussions with a lot of our suppliers. And as Peter mentioned, as in this integrated delivery model, we're actively participating with our partners in sourcing the right inputs to the development at the best possible cost. There will be trade-offs that we'll be analyzing on today's cost and availability. We, as you recall, advanced a budget last year to place orders on long-lead items, and so we are in the queue on a number of things to put us in a position to be able to get the equipment that we need at the right time and, obviously, to optimize the cost. But it's really hard to answer your question directly as the tariff policies continue to evolve in the United States. And so we're actively working to ensure that we get the best price in the short term and that we reflect that in the capital cost estimate that we put out in the second half of this year. Comix.

Thanks. If I can squeeze in one last question on capital world. This future mill optionality here, can you guys comment on sort of the scale or quantum of what you're looking at from an expansion and whether there's any read-throughs at all into phase two being brought forward?

Just comment on, so they're not, it's not like really, really large things, but we're talking about the size of the initial sag mill. and so and so the size of the sag mill is is set to a size that allows for that optionality combined with the ball mill later on there's some pumping configuration some some different foundations set up for future so that we don't see those delays so it's not there there are some additions where we're sizing our tailings lines we're looking at at certain infrastructure there's a cost to it, but it's not something that's going to blow the bank.

Thanks very much, guys.

And, Dalton, maybe to finish off my comment on the tariffs, I think I talked on the cost end, and Peter kind of reminded me there's a benefit on the revenue end as well. So if these tariffs apply, obviously the price of copper in the United States will benefit from that. And so, you know, you've seen, obviously, a range of 3% to 12% premiums for copper in the U.S. on the COMEX versus the LME. And so there are sort of positive effects of tariffs for the Copper World Project and the Cactus Project as it will produce cathode copper in the United States.

We have a follow-up from Lawson Winder with Bank of America.

Please go ahead. thanks operator and thanks team for taking the follow-up just on M&A there's been a clear trend at HUD Bay towards acquisitions in North American copper does there still remain an appetite at HUD Bay for further M&A and then does North America continue to offer good potential for consolidation in your view and Lawson I look I don't think I don't need to say much about the attractive pipeline of high return brownfields and greenfields opportunities that we have ahead of us But as it relates to inorganic opportunities, we continue to look for opportunities that meet our very stringent criteria. As you know, we've got a very skilled team, and when it comes to, especially when it comes to efficient operations and world-class development of projects, so our strategy hasn't changed. We continue to look for opportunities, we always do, but they have to be accretive for our shareholders. And so to the extent that we can find those, of course we will pursue them. I think that, of course, there is opportunity in the United States, and we'll continue to pursue opportunities, but we'll do it in a very, very, very disciplined manner.

Thank you very much for that. You're welcome.

And our last question is from Emerson Vieira with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Hi, Tim. Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. Now that you guys are advancing the PFS at Cactus, right, redoing it, I just want to hear from you guys. What are your thoughts in terms of the project economics, but mainly related to the CapEx figure, right? I mean you understand that the project follows a pretty standard process right conventional two-stage crush people each so it's much less complex than copper world that could justify a lower capex intensity per se but just I mean call our attention on the magnitude of the capex intensity for the project so yeah just want to hear you guys what do you think could be the final capex for cactus specifically if you bring a base approach to greenfield project could we see actually slight increase in the cactus project capex hi Emerson Eugene

speaking here and thank you for your question it's a bit premature to talk about the capex estimate for cat based capex estimate for cactus we just you We're one month into post-closing integration, and we are about to initiate kind of HUD-based pre-feasibility study. I think what we, you know, one month in, we're very pleased with the look under the hood in terms of what we have acquired. We believe, as Peter highlighted, there are significant synergies between the two projects. We see lots of potential at Cactus to advance that project. And, you know, in terms of, you know, what the project will look like, that's the study that we're going to be embarking on over the next year. And we expect it to complement what we have in Copper World and the timelines that we anticipated in terms of the acquisition of cactus are consistent. We expect it to stage in very nicely after Copper World. We expect it to produce upwards of 100,000 tons of copper per year, which, as Peter highlighted in his remarks, gets us to 350,000 tons of copper production once it's completed. So we see that opportunity. As an oxide deposit, the capital intensity of this project is one of the lowest. It's the highest-grade, undeveloped oxide project in this half of the world. And so we would expect it to have a very attractive capital intensity, given its characteristics. But I would be too early to comment on a specific number in terms of capital until we've completed the PFS estimate.

I would add, Emerson, it's Peter, that, I mean, the one thing for sure that we've been very pleased with is the work that's been done by the Arizona Sonoran team. They did, and that was one of the reasons why we liked the project so much, because we liked the team and the work that they were doing. So you're not going to see a massive diversion of focus areas. It's a well-done project, but we need to bring it to our standards.

All right, thank you.

No surprise.

Very good, thank you.

This concludes the question and answer session. I'd like to turn the call back over to Candice Brulé for 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 team. Thanks and have a great day.

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.