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Delivering global growth

Our operations and future developments span four continents and diverse conditions. Visit each location to find out more about our mineral producing assets and new prospects.

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Panama

Cobre Panama

Cobre Panama is our newest operation, located in Colon Province, 120km west of Panama City.

Overview

With 3.0 billion tonnes of proven and probable reserves, Cobre Panama is one of the largest new copper mines opened globally in the past decade. Located in Colon Province, 120km west of Panama City, the production complex includes two open pits, a processing plant, two 150 megawatt power stations and a port.

Commercial production started in 2019 and at full current capacity, the plant will process 85Mtpa of ore to produce more than 300,000 tonnes of copper per year along with gold, silver and molybdenum.

Cobre Panama will employ about 4,500 people, primarily Panamanians, and utilize state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure to extract copper with world-class efficiency.

Following a corporate acquisition in 2013, First Quantum assumed an 80 per cent equity interest in Minera Panamá, S.A. (“MPSA”), the Panamanian company that holds the Cobre Panama concession.

In November 2017, First Quantum increased its ownership interest in MPSA to 90 per cent.

Mining and Processing

Cobre Panama comprises a series of copper porphyry deposits The main deposits are Balboa, Botija, Colina and Valle Grande. There are also a number of smaller mineralized zones; the most significant being Brazo and Botija Abajo. The operation has a 34-year mine life.

Mining is open-pit, using a fleet of ultraclass electric shovels and ultraclass haul trucks. Four in-pit semi-mobile primary crushers feed two overland conveyors to the secondary crushers and main processing complex. The three 28 megawatt SAG mills and four 16.5 megawatt ball mills installed at Cobre Panama are the largest installed anywhere in the world, except for Sentinel. Copper sulphides are concentrated by flotation, and concentrates are delivered by slurry pipeline from the main processing plant to the filter plant co-located at our purpose-built port facility on the Caribbean. Tailings are stored and water is reclaimed from our centreline-construction Tailings Storage Facility.

The project is powered by a 300 megawatt power generation plant located at the port.

Technical Report

Cobre Panama’s most recent NI 43-101 Technical Report.

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Careers

To find out more about working at Cobre Panama and the lifestyle enjoyed by our employees visit the careers page.

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Zambia

Kansanshi

The Kansanshi copper-gold mine near Solwezi, in the North Western Province of Zambia, has been our flagship operation since 2005.

Overview

From its two open pits, the Kansanshi copper-gold mine near Solwezi, in the North Western Province of Zambia, produces more copper than any other mine in Africa.

Since we started production at Kansanshi opening in 2005, we have installed several expansions, and the operation is now capable of producing 340,000 tonnes of copper and more than 120,000 ounces of gold per year.

Kansanshi employs more than 13,000 people, primarily Zambians, and utilizes state-of-the-art technology to extract copper and gold from three different ore types, with world-class efficiency.

The Kansanshi mine is owned and operated by Kansanshi Mining PLC, which is 80 per cent owned by First Quantum.

Mining and Processing

Kansanshi is a vein deposit, with economic copper and gold mineralization occurring in three ore-types: primary sulphide, mixed supergene and oxide.

Mining is carried out in two open pits, Main and Northwest, using conventional open pit methods employing hydraulic excavators and a fleet of haul trucks with electric trolley assist on the waste haul. Ore treatment is flexible to allow for variation in ore type either through an oxide leach circuit, a sulphide flotation circuit and or a transitional ore “mixed float” circuit.

Sulphide ore is treated via crushing, milling and flotation to produce copper in concentrate. Mixed ore is treated through a similar circuit with the option to treat the flotation concentrate via the high pressure leach circuit.

Oxide ore is treated via crushing, milling, flotation, leaching and the SX/EW process to produce a sulphidic and gold bearing flotation concentrate as well as electro-won cathode copper.

Gold is recovered from all ore types by six gravity concentrators. Gemini tables treat the gravity concentrates and produce a high-grade concentrate for direct smelting to gold bullion.

A portion of the copper concentrate produced from the sulphide and mixed ore circuits is treated in a High Pressure Leach facility. Copper is recovered by oxidation and leaching in autoclaves, and gold is recovered from HPL residues via an acid-resistant gravity concentrator.

Smelter

The Kansanshi copper smelter, commissioned in the first half of 2015, has enabled First Quantum to optimize the value of the copper it produces in Zambia, and created a further 700 specialist jobs.

It has a nominal capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum of concentrate to produce more than 300,000 tonnes of blister copper annually. The smelter efficiently traps 100% of sulphur dioxide by-product and converts it into sulphuric acid. This recycling produces more than 1 million tonnes per annum of sulphuric acid, reducing reliance on imported acid for use in the treatment of oxide copper ores. Acid produced by the smelter is neutralised in the leaching circuit.

Technical Report

Kansanshi’s most recent NI 43-101 Technical Report.

Careers

To find out more about working at Kansanshi and the lifestyle enjoyed by our employees visit the careers page.

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Spain

Cobre Las Cruces

Las Cruces is a very high grade (5-6%) open-pit copper mine and hydrometallurgical plant located in the Sevilla Province of Southern Spain.

Overview

The hydrometallurgical plant relies on a unique atmospheric ferric leaching process to recover copper from the rich Las Cruces chalcocite ore. The process, specifically designed for Las Cruces polymetallic ore, is optimized to produce London Metal Exchange grade copper cathode with minimal water and energy use, controlled liquid effluent and a dry solid waste stream.

The plant is designed to produce approximately 72,000 tonnes of copper cathode per year which is shipped as final product.

Mining and Processing

The Las Cruces deposit is a polymetallic Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide deposit, similar to other Iberian Pyrite Belt deposits. A thick, high-grade supergene zone overlies the primary sulphides, comprised of a gold-bearing gossan zone in the upper part and a copper-rich secondary sulphide zone underneath.

Las Cruces uses conventional open pit mining methods, based on hydraulic excavators and trucks, with drilling and blasting in the lower marls and ore zones. Ore undergoes three stages of crushing, a single stage of grinding and is thickened to eliminate water before it goes to three pre-reactor tanks.

Eight Outotec OKTOP® agitated reactors dissolve the copper under conditions of high temperature and high acidity. Oxygen is also added into the reactors to complete the reaction.

Once leached, the liquid is separated from the ground solids, and the copper is recovered by the SX/EW process. The electrowinning cells produce London Metals Exchange grade copper cathodes weighing about 50kg each. An automated crane and stripping machine harvests and packages the cathodes for shipment.

Outlook

Research on the technical and economic feasibility of the polymetallic refinery project is progressing, as well as permits required to carry out this project in the medium term.

Technical Report

Cobre Las Cruces’s most recent NI 43-101 Technical Report.

Careers

To find out more about working at Las Cruces vist the careers page.

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Turkey

Çayeli

The Çayeli mine is an underground copper and zinc operation in north eastern Turkey.

Overview

Çayeli Bakır is located on the Black Sea coast of north eastern Turkey and operated by Çayeli Bakir Isletmeleri A.S., a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Quantum.

Since 1994, Çayeli Bakır has produced copper and zinc concentrates. It has the capacity to mine and process 1.3 million tonnes of ore per annum.

Çayeli Bakır employs 493 people.

Mining and Processing

Çayeli is a volcanic hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) copper-zinc deposit.

Çayeli’s mine design is based on underground bulk mining methods with the use of delayed backfill to extract ore in a sequential manner.

Ore processing includes three stages of crushing primary and secondary ball mill grinding, conventional flotation using either standard or column cells, and water removal by thickening and pressure filtering to produce copper and zinc concentrates.

Çayeli is the largest underground base metals mine in Turkey and has been producing concentrate for more than 25 years. As a result of First Quantum’s mining and metallurgical experience, Çayeli’s initial design mill capacity has been doubled during the life of the project to reach 1.2 million tonnes per annum.

Outlook

Production is expected to be challenging due to poor ground conditions in the areas planned to be mined, therefore ground stabilization will continue to be critical to achieving the expected production levels as the mine approaches reserve depletion in 2023.

Careers

To find out more about working at Çayeli visit the careers page.

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Mauritania

Guelb Moghrein

The Guelb Moghrein copper-gold operation is located 250km northeast of Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott, near the town of Akjoujt.

Overview

Mining has a long history in Mauritania and Guelb Moghrein is one of the largest external investments in the country. The copper-gold operation is located 250km northeast of the capital, Nouakchott, near the town of Akjoujt. The Guelb Moghrein deposit was first developed in the early 1970s by Anglo American Corporation, however, it closed in 1977 due to technical difficulties and high fuel prices.

First Quantum acquired an 80% interest in the asset in 2004 and achieved commercial production in 2006, increasing its investment through plant upgrades in 2008 and adding a magnetite plant in 2013. In 2010, the Company increased its ownership in Guelb Moghrein to 100%. Guelb Moghrein employs around 1200 people, almost all Mauritanian nationals, and in 2021 contributed USD 46.02 million to Mauritania’s economy.

Mining and Processing

Guelb Moghrein is an example of the Iron Oxide Copper Gold deposit but is unusual in being hosted in a carbonate stratum. Open-pit mining at Guelb Moghrein is carried out using hydraulic excavators and mechanical drive haul trucks. The Occidental main pit is nearing the end of its life and this project is expected to be completed in 2025. In June 2019, a smaller second pit, the Oriental pit was developed, targeting high-grade sulphide ore; this project was completed in 2021.

Guelb Moghrein currently mines around 1.6 million BCMs of material annually and processes some 3.4 million tonnes of sulphide ore per year, mainly from existing stockpiles. This ore is treated in a flotation plant to produce a copper-gold concentrate. The flotation tails are treated in the magnetite plant to produce a high-quality, low-cost iron concentrate. The plant currently produces approximately 13,400 tonnes of copper in concentrate per year at a grade of 21% copper, with credits received for contained gold; and in addition, 570,000 tonnes of high-grade magnetite concentrate per year.

In late-2023 Guelb Moghrein will commence reprocessing of a portion of its tailings material and then subsequently its oxide stockpiles through a Carbon in Leach process in order to recover gold. This is expected to extend the economic life of Guelb Moghrein to at least 2027.

Careers

To find out more about working at Guelb Moghrein avisit the careers page.

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Australia

Ravensthorpe

The Ravensthorpe Nickel Operation (RNO) is an open-pit mine and primary processing plant located in the south west of Western Australia.

Overview

RNO is located in the Esperance region of Western Australia, approximately 550km south east of the State capital Perth. RNO is commencing a restart process in readiness for early 2020.

Investment will be undertaken at RNO to enable expansion into a second stage nickel laterite deposit, known as Shoemaker-Levy. This major expansion will give RNO a long-term life of approximately 30 years.

First Quantum acquired 100% of Ravensthorpe - then a decommissioned mine - in 2010. We made significant improvements to the process and facilities, and shipped our first concentrate exports in November 2011. We put the mine on care and maintenance in 2017 due to persistently low nickel prices. In early 2020, the mine was restarted creating over 350 new jobs and will ramp up to full production levels over the year.

In May 2021, First Quantum entered into a binding agreement to sell a 30% equity interest to POSCO, one of the world's largest steel producers.

Ongoing annual production from RNO is targeted at approximately 30,000 tonnes of contained nickel.

Mining and Processing

Ravensthorpe comprises three separate deposits of low-grade nickel-in-laterite.

Operations involve mining in three open pits, and ore processing in a beneficiation plant – a simple scrubbing and screening process which upgrades the nickel laterite ore. A combination of pressure acid leach and atmospheric leach utilizes all ore types, and precipitation and filtration recover a mixed hydroxide (MHO) precipitate product, containing approximately 40 per cent nickel and 1.4 per cent cobalt, suitable feedstock for battery production.

Sulphuric acid for the leaching process is produced on site in a double absorption acid plant. Waste heat from the acid plant is recovered and used to generate all of the site's electrical power as well as provide heat for the leaching process.

Ravensthorpe uses seawater piped from the Southern Ocean and pumped via a 46km pipeline. Desalination on site provides fresh water for steam production and brine for use in the beneficiation circuit.

The project includes purpose built facilities at the port of Esperance for transport of sulphur for the acid plant and the MHO product from the plant.

Technical Report

Ravensthorpe’s most recent NI 43-101 Technical Report.

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Careers

To find out more about working at Ravensthorpe and the lifestyle enjoyed by our employees visit the careers page.

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Finland

Pyhäsalmi

The Pyhäsalmi mine is an underground copper, zinc and pyrite mine located in central Finland.

Overview

The Pyhäsalmi copper, zinc and pyrite mine is in central Finland, four kilometers southeast of the town of Pyhäjärvi, on Lake Pyhäjärvi.

Pyhäsalmi is one of the oldest and deepest underground mines in Europe. It is also one of the most efficient non-caving underground mines in the world. It was developed by Outokumpu Oyj in 1962 following accidental discovery of the deposit by a farmer. In the 1990s a 1450-metre deep automated hoisting shaft was constructed to exploit deeper ore. The shaft itself is a rare asset, providing access via hoist in less than three minutes or via driving the 11km decline in 30 minutes. It added ten years to Pyhäsalmi's life of mine. It has produced around 60 million tonnes of ore in its history.

Outokumpu started production from the new shaft in 2001, and in 2002, Inmet completed the acquisition of Pyhäsalmi and continued underground production. First Quantum acquired Pyhäsalmi in 2013 through its acquisition of Inmet.

Mining and Processing

The Pyhäsalmi deposit is a copper-zinc volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit of Proterozoic age.

Pyhäsalmi uses non-entry, bulk open-stope mining methods in a primary-secondary sequence. On average, stope size varies from 50,000 tonnes for narrow primary stopes to over 100,000 tonnes for wider secondary stopes. After single-stage primary crushing by an underground jaw crusher, ore is hoisted to a fines crushing plant, where it is ground in three stages. This is followed by conventional flotation, consisting of three sequential flotation circuits, one each for copper, zinc and pyrite.

Outlook

The life of the mine has been extended into June 2021 with an assumed lower copper cut-off grade.

Mine closure plans, including dismantling and earthworks, are being planned in accordance with legal requirements and best practice. Pyrite supply will extend until 2025, based on reclaiming pyrite from tailings.

Planning is in place for the mine facilities and associated infrastructure to be repurposed. Callio, a joint project by the town of Pyhäjärvi and the University of Oulu, will provide an umbrella organization for new businesses and activities to take advantage of Pyhäsalmi's unique deep underground infrastructure. Proposed new activities include underground physics laboratories, a secure underground data center, pumped hydroelectrical energy storage, plant and fungus growing laboratories and experimental production of insects and fish.

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Zambia

Sentinel

The Sentinel open-pit copper mine, 150km west of Solwezi in North Western Province of Zambia, is at the forefront of mining technology.

Overview

Constructed over four years from 2012, Sentinel represents US$2.1 billion of investment - Zambia's largest infrastructure investment since the Kariba Dam was constructed in 1959. The operation is based on sophisticated technology – including the world's largest steel-ball mills and the world’s largest semi-mobile rope shovels.

Mining capacity will eventually extend to around 65 million bulk cubic metres of ore and waste mined per annum. The plant has capacity to treat 55 million tonnes of ore to produce 300,000 tonnes of copper per annum.

The workforce at Sentinel is greater than 6,000, predominantly Zambian nationals.

In 2010, First Quantum acquired 100 per cent of Kiwara plc and its main asset - a controlling interest in the prospecting license on the periphery of the Kabombo Dome, which included the Kalumbila copper deposit (now Sentinel) and the Kawako nickel deposit (now Enterprise.) The combined project was renamed Trident after the acquisition. Sentinel and Enterprise will ultimately share processing infrastructure and tailings facilities.

Mining and Processing

Sentinel is a sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposit, with predominantly primary chalcopyrite copper mineralisation.

Open pit mining is carried out using conventional methods, with large-scale electric face shovels and hydraulic excavators, and a fleet of ultraclass haul trucks. The three 57m3 bucket capacity rope shovels are electric rather than diesel-powered, and we use electrical trolley assist for waste haulage. Ore is crushed in-pit, in three semi-mobile gyratory crushers. Overland conveyors feed two secondary crushers, and two mill trains each consisting of a 40 foot diameter 28 megawatt SAG mill twinned with a 44 foot length 22 megawatt Ball mill. The grinding mills are amongst the largest of their type currently operating in the world. Chalcopyrite is recovered in flotation and delivered to the dedicated concentrate handling facility where it is thickened and filtered.

The process plant is designed to treat 55 million tonnes per annum of copper ore from Sentinel mine, with a separate 4 million tonnes per annum circuit designed to process nickel ore feed from the Enterprise project or additional copper ore feed from Sentinel.

Technical Report

Trident’s most recent NI 43-101 Technical Report.

Careers

To find out more about working at Sentinel and the lifestyle enjoyed by our employees visit the careers page.

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Zambia

Enterprise

The Enterprise nickel project is located 12km away from our Sentinel copper mine in the North Western Province of Zambia.

Overview

Enterprise is a stand-alone nickel orebody in the north-west of the Trident license area. Given the operational and infrastructure synergies with the Sentinel copper mine, just 12km away, Enterprise is expected to be a low-cost nickel mine. Environmental approval has been granted, and preparatory works undertaken, so that pre-stripping can commence as market conditions become favourable.

The nickel process plant was completed in 2016, and shares a number of sections with the Sentinel process circuit. It is designed to produce 28,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate, but this can be increased to 60,000 tonnes. The plant is integrated with the Sentinel copper circuit so that it can produce additional copper concentrate when not producing nickel.

Enterprise and Sentinel are 100 per cent owned by FQM Trident Limited, a First Quantum subsidiary. They were secured in 2010 when First Quantum acquired 100 per cent of Kiwara PLC and its main asset - a controlling interest in a prospecting license on the periphery of the Kabombo Dome area. The combined license area was renamed Trident after the acquisition. Sentinel and Enterprise will ultimately share processing infrastructure and tailings facilities.

Mining and Processing

Enterprise is a sediment-hosted nickel-sulphide deposit with a total measured and indicated resource of 40 million tonnes of ore containing 431,000 tonnes of nickel.

Enterprise ore will be delivered to a dedicated system of dual primary crushers, crushed ore stockpile and conveying. Up to 4 million tonnes per year of nickel ore will be treated in a SAG – ball milling circuit with pebble crushing, flash flotation and nickel flotation.

Final concentrate, at a grade of between 24 per cent and 30 per cent nickel, will be thickened and filtered in a dedicated concentrate handling facility.

The Enterprise processing plant will share the Sentinel infrastructure and tailings will be discharged to the Sentinel tailings thickeners and tailings storage facility.

Environmental approval has been granted for Enterprise and preparatory works around the project have been undertaken to allow pre-stripping to commence when required.

Construction work on the process plant for Enterprise was completed in 2016, and some sections of the plant have been incorporated into the Sentinel process circuit to provide additional processing flexibility until the start-up of the project.

Outlook

Environmental approval has been granted for Enterprise and preparatory works around the project have been undertaken to allow pre-stripping to commence when market conditions favour nickel production.

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Peru

Haquira

Haquira is an undeveloped copper deposit in Apurimac region of southern Peru.

Overview

Haquira is one of the world’s major undeveloped copper deposits with excellent potential for a large-scale copper mine. It is located in the Peruvian Andes, in the Apurimac region of southern Peru.

First Quantum secured the Haquira deposit via its acquisition of Antares Minerals in 2010. In 2013, First Quantum secured titles over seven concessions (6400 ha) adjacent to Haquira that now form part of the Haquira project, adding to potential copper resources and to the potential to accommodate infrastructure for Haquira. When fully operational the Haquira Project has the potential to produce more than 200,000 tonnes of copper a year.

Mining and Processing

Mineralisation at Haquira is related to porphyry-copper systems. Mineralisation has been identified in enriched supergene copper blankets, copper sulfide-bearing stockworks and sheeted-vein systems in underlying primary copper porphyries.

Reported in 2010, measured and indicated resources were 3.7 million tonnes of contained copper equivalent, with inferred resources of 2.4 million tonnes of contained copper equivalent. These published Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves are historical estimates, now superseded by First Quantum's own preliminary updates, based on more recent technical and economic analyses.

First Quantum’s vision is for Haquira to be a state-of-the-art remote site, with employees working on appropriate rotations suited to high-altitude work.

The Company aims to continue working closely with stakeholders and key organisations in the Apurimac region to ensure the mine is developed to the highest standards and delivers a range of tangible benefits for local communities.

Outlook

The focus continues on the community and environmental aspects. The Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) studies continue and formal negotiations with the communities with respect to their resettlement have now commenced.

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Argentina

Taca Taca

Taca Taca is a high-potential copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry deposit in an advanced exploration phase.

Overview

Taca Taca is located in Salta Province in north west Argentina, 230 km west of the city of Salta and 55 km east of the Chilean coast.

A detailed Environmental and Social baseline study is at an advanced stage of preparation and continues to advance the project. Communication with communities and the relevant authorities is ongoing. Water studies are progressing, including a field program to develop boreholes for pump testing sustainable groundwater resources. Formal environmental and social impact assessments are anticipated to be filed with the authorities during 2019.

Collection of baseline data for fauna, flora and other environmental attributes have been completed, along with social baseline studies. A scoping process is ongoing for the required electricity infrastructure.

First Quantum acquired 100 per cent of Taca Taca from Lumina Copper Corporation in 2014, through its subsidiary, Corriente Argentina S.A. (CASA).

Mining and Processing

The Taca Taca copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry deposit is held in a composite package consisting of a number of separate concessions and exploration permits. First Quantum has successfully consolidated these landholdings in preparation for project development stage. Two of the mining concessions have a 50 per cent ownership with third party groups. These properties are subject to a 1.5 per cent net smelter returns royalty.

Reported in 2013, measured and indicated resources were 9.6 million tonnes of contained copper, with inferred resources are of 3.4 million tonnes of contained copper. These published Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves are historical estimates, now superseded by First Quantum's own preliminary updates based on our completed reviews of the deposit geology, mineralogy and processing amenability, and assessment of development options.

The Taca Taca deposit is suitable for conventional, large-scale, bulk open pit mining methods. Metallurgical testwork indicates that the Taca Taca ore is amenable to grinding in a conventional SAG – ball milling circuit, with pebble crushing and regrinding, and flotation.

The Company has selected the scale and extents of open pit mining and ore processing, and the location and scope of required infrastructure items. Technical and commercial work has proceeded on power and water supply logistics, freight and product transport options. The Company’s project engineering phase has advanced such that the primary permit application may be submitted. First Quantum has completed preliminarty water exploration drilling and aquifer pump tests to confirm sustainable groundwater supply sources for the project.

Technical Report

Taca Taca’s most recent NI 43-101 Technical Report.

Outlook

Pre-development and feasibility activities continue, focusing on an initial scope involving confirmatory work on the mineral resource, metallurgical sampling and testing, mine geotechnical studies, and other technical work required to increase the definition of project engineering, cost, and operating estimates.

The primary Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (“ESIA”) for the Taca Taca project, which covers the prinicipal proposed project sites, was submitted to the Secretariat of Mining of Salta Province in February 2019.

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