First Quantum Minerals Ltd has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cobre Las Cruces S.A.U. has entered into a binding agreement to sell the Las Cruces mine in Spain for consideration of up to US$190 million plus a profitability-linked earn-out provision to Global Panduro, S.L.U., a company controlled by funds managed by Resource Capital Funds. The transaction paves the way for Global Panduro to develop the Las Cruces polymetallic primary sulphide project.
Under the terms of the transaction, Global Panduro will acquire Las Cruces for a consideration comprising US$45 million in cash at closing, issue of an approximately US$65 million loan note to the seller (subject to certain working capital adjustments), up to US$80 million in deferred payments tied to certain project development milestones, and a further contingent deferred earn-out payment or payments tied to exit and liquidity events of 10% of the proceeds over and above an agreed internal rate of return threshold.
The transaction is subject to certain customary conditions and regulatory approvals and is expected to close during the first half of 2026.
The Las Cruces site is located approximately 20 kilometres northwest of Seville. The mine produced copper cathodes from 2009 to 2021 and completed tailings reprocessing from 2021 to 2023. In February 2024, First Quantum published an updated NI 43‑101 Technical Report setting out plans for a next‑phase redevelopment on the existing mine site via a new underground mine feeding a polymetallic refinery to produce copper, zinc, lead and silver.
The proposed Poly Metallurgical Refinery (PMR) project comprised a new dual drift access underground mine producing up to 2.0 Mt/y, feeding a polymetallic refinery with a design throughput of up to 2.2 Mt/y. Additional ore feed of 0.2 Mt/y would be sourced from existing surface stockpiles to meet plant capacity. Specific components of the project would include a multi-phased underground mine extending to an ultimate depth of 450 m, producing up to 2 Mt/y and utilising Drift and Fill (DAF) and Longhole Open Stoping (LHOS) extraction methods.
A total of 36.6 Mt of ore would be mined from underground over the LOM. Of this, 35.6 Mt would be fed directly to the process plant and another 899,000 t would be stockpiled and rehandled.
It would include also reclamation of an existing surface stockpile containing 5 Mt of primary sulphide ore that was mined during the open pit operations. Modifications would be to the existing processing facility and the construction of additional processing facilities approximately 1 km to the east. Plus it would involve a new paste plant located midway between the existing and proposed new process plants, to provide cemented backfill suitable for underground support or filtered tailings suitable for dry stacking.
It would necessitate expansion of the existing In-Pit Tailings Storage Facility (IPTF) located within the existing open pit and construction of surface facilities to support underground mining including ventilation fans, decline portals, a fuel storage, explosives facility, mine offices and bathhouses.
Interestingly the plan in the Technical Report is to use Railveyor materials handling technology including three ore passes, transfer points, two rockbreaker silos, two loading stations underground, and a surface unloading facility. There would be two declines – the East Ramp would be a decline from a portal located at the -44 level of the existing open pit and would be used for personnel and equipment access.
The West Ramp would have a decline from a portal located on surface outside of the existing open pit and adjacent to the proposed new processing facilities. This ramp has been designed for the installation of an electric powered ore hauling system, the Railveyor, and will also act as an emergency egress route from the mine. A third internal haulage ramp connects the West zone deep levels and the Railveyor West loading station at the 335 level with the main 185 level. The decline development plan enables the establishment of a primary ventilation circuit with no intermediate ventilation shafts required until the main ventilation infrastructure is developed.
The Technical Report states: “The Railveyor is an innovative material-handling system that combines the flexibility of truck hauling with the energy efficiency of conveyors and rail lines. The principle of the Railveyor system is to fill the cars from one of two loading stations, move them forward using drive stations, then discharge the material from a 180 degrees continuous loop.”
The envisaged primary equipment to be used at peak production includes three two boom jumbos, four 12.5 t LHDs, nine 17 t LHDs, four 65 t trucks, three bolters, one cable bolter, three shotcrete sprayers, four transmixers, three 100 mm production drills, and one mobile raiseborer.
Ore would be brought to the surface via two methods. Ore from DAF mining areas will be hauled by truck via the East Ramp. In the LHOS areas, a fleet of LHDs will take the broken ore to ore passes at different levels which feed one of two rock breaker and ore loading stations of the Railveyor and
conveyed to the surface processing facilities.
Construction of underground support infrastructure would include shafts, dewatering pump stations,
maintenance workshop, paste backfill delivery system, electrical substations, refuge stations, mine
communications, and other ancillary installations.
Expansion of existing water management infrastructure would include treatment plants, dewatering bore and supporting pumping systems. Upgrading of existing surface haulage and internal access roads will be needed as well as construction of expanded electrical distribution and communication facilities to new processing facilities and underground mine areas.
Lycopodium was engaged by FQM to undertake an Engineering Cost Study (ECS) for the proposed PMR Project. Primary polymetallic sulphides processing treats copper, zinc and lead (bearing silver) primary sulphides to produce the four metals as commercial products, specifically copper cathodes, zinc ingots, lead metal briquettes and silver metal cement.
The process design calls for ore to be floated to produce a single bulk concentrate that feeds a hydrometallurgical plant where the four mentioned metals are leached and recovered in sequence. The existing process plant will require modifications, as well as the installation of new comminution flotation circuits and dedicated zinc, lead, and silver refining facilities to achieve this design.
On the basis of the testwork outcomes, a product P80 of 35µm has been adopted as the target grind size from the milling circuit for subsequent feed to the bulk flotation circuit. Testwork has also demonstrated that a mass pull to concentrate of ~35% w/w may be anticipated and that further grinding of this concentrate to a target P80 of 10µm will be required for optimum downstream leaching performance and metal recovery.