Hudbay is now planning, through an auction and private sale company, to sell off much of its Flin Flon area assets and equipment.
Flin Flon’s biggest employer has tapped Vaughan, Ont.-based TCL Asset Group to sell items and equipment from its area operations. The sale was announced late last week by TCL and confirmed by Hudbay in a statement to The Reminder.
“TCL Asset Group Inc., is pleased to announce that it has been awarded the contract to manage the sale of surplus assets from the Hudbay Flin Flon flagship site in connection with the planned closure in summer 2022,” reads a statement from the company, issued March 25. The company estimates the value of assets to be in the millions of dollars. No cost figure for TCL’s services for Hudbay has been announced by either company.
Throughout much of this year, TCL will make several Hudbay assets from its Flin Flon operations available for sale through private sales and at least one public auction event.
A Hudbay spokesperson said that many items and assets from Flin Flon will not be sold and will instead be moved to its Snow Lake-area operations. Other items that won’t be sold include those required to possibly restart the Flin Flon mill at a future date.
“We have identified assets in Flin Flon that we will be utilizing at our Snow Lake operations or placing on care and maintenance to be used for a potential restart of the Flin Flon mill. All other assets from our Flin Flon site are expected to be sold and we have hired TCL Asset Group Inc. to manage the sale of these surplus assets,” reads the statement to The Reminder from a Hudbay spokesperson.
Hudbay has planned to shut down most of its Flin Flon-area operations for several years. Earlier this year, the company confirmed that it plans to shut down the Flin Flon zinc plant by the end of May, close the company’s mill in mid-June and end operations at 777 mine around the same time. Under current plans, the zinc plant will be permanently shut down, the mill will be “placed on temporary closure” with no firm reopening date announced and the company’s administration offices, fabrication buildings and concentrate handling facility will stay open. Hudbay’s tailings facility will be “put on care and maintenance”.
“The Flin Flon 777 mine (copper, zinc, gold, silver) has approached the end of its mine life after 17 stellar years. The mill and processing facility has been in operation for almost a century. Site closure activities related to the 777 mine, the oxygen plant and zinc plant are expected to be completed by fall 2022, while the Flin Flon mill and tailings facility will be put on care and maintenance,” reads TCL’s brief on the project.
Several union groups reached three-and-a-half year deals with Hudbay last year. It is unknown exactly how many workers will move from Flin Flon operations to Snow Lake, how many workers will be laid off or who will be in which category - agreements on “the bump” have not yet been reached.
TCL’s plans to sell Hudbay’s assets have already started, with sales continuing throughout the year before an auction sale in August.
“This seven-month asset sale project will consist of private, negotiated sales commencing immediately, followed by an auction sale in August 2022,” reads the TCL news release. A statement from a Hudbay spokesperson to The Reminder confirmed details of the sale, including a word-for-word copy of the list shown in the TCL release.
“Assets available for sale include underground mining rolling stock and equipment, general mine site equipment, structure metals from the zinc plant, powerhouse and oxygen facilities and related machinery and equipment including new inventory, spare parts, consumables and related assets,” read both statements.
The auction company has held sales similar to Hudbay’s in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Central and South America in several different industries, including construction, food and beverages, plastics, chemicals, phamaceuticals and real estate.
“We are very excited to be heading up this sales process for Hudbay. Our experience working in northern Canada will help to maximize return on assets sold and provide a well-organized and implemented plan. In turn, our buyers will have the opportunity to acquire well-maintained assets from a top-tier mining operator,” said TCL CEO Terrance Jacobs.
Items available for purchase have not been shown on the TCL website.
