Hudson Bay Mining

Canada's fourth largest copper and zinc producer, Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. Ltd. (HBM&S), is energizing its northern Manitoba facilities, extending their future to 2016 and beyond.  At a cost of $400 million CDN, the 777 Project represents the largest single investment in the company's 75-year history.

While HBM&S was incorporated in 1927, the Flin Flon zinc-copper ore body had been discovered in 1915.  A metallurgical complex was constructed in Flin Flon on the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border in 1929 and has worked around the clock since it started up in 1930 - with only two short interruptions.

Our northern Manitoba operations include a fully-integrated mining and metallurgical complex that includes two concentrators, a copper smelter and a zinc refinery for the processing of copper and zinc ore mined from our two operating mines.

The ore body was first exploited as an open pit and then underground via two mineshafts, north (1935) and south (1939) of the deposit.  The Flin Flon mine operated through 1988, and was, in fact, the company-maker for HBM&S.

To the end of 2003, the company had operated 29 separate mines in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, mining 145 million tonnes of ore to produce 3 million tonnes of copper, 5.4 million tonnes of zinc, 8.5 million ounces of gold and 131 million ounces of silver.

HBM&S closed the smelter portion of their operation in Flin Flon in June 2010.

HBM&S Co. Ltd. today is a wholly owned private company owned by Hudbay Minerals.