HudBay marks 80th birthday with $1M donation

HudBay Minerals

(HBM-T, HBMFF-O), Canada’s third-largest nickel and copper company, has turned 80.

In celebration of the company’s 80 years in the industry, HudBay has announced plans to donate $1 million to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, in Winnipeg, Man.

“HudBay’s contribution will help ensure Canada’s first human rights museum becomes a beacon around the world for championing human rights and freedoms, a fact of which all Canadians can be proud,” said Gail Asper, national chair of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, in a statement.

HudBay’s story starts with the 1914 discovery of a mineral deposit by Tom Creighton, near the frontier town of Flin Flon, in northern Manitoba. But it wasn’t until 13 years later that the company was incorporated in its first incarnation, Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co.

At the time of its construction, the Flin Flon operation was the largest engineering project in the world. In addition to the mine, the project also had a mill for processing ore, a copper smelter, a zinc plant, a hydroelectric plant at Island Falls, and 90 miles of railway.

Eighty years later, the company has grown to hold 25 mines, and since its inception in 1927, has processed more than 155 million tonnes of ore and employed nearly 20,000 people.

HudBay still operates mines, concentrators and a metal production facility in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The company also owns a zinc oxide production facility in Ontario, the White Pine Copper Refinery in Michigan and the Balmat zinc mine in New York state.

Today, Hudbay employs 1,500 people in Manitoba and 1,800 in North America.