Grupo Mexico said on Thursday it will push ahead with major investments at its United States mining unit Asarco, expanding the Ray and Silver Bell mines in Arizona and aiming to restart the Hayden smelter and refinery, after copper output fell in the third quarter. The company expects to spend 4 billion to 6 billion dollars over the next three years on Asarco’s main projects, mining head Leonardo Contreras told analysts.
The step up is steep. The planned programme compares with Asarco spending of just 101 million dollars in 2024, though it is in line with expansion plans the company had previously floated. Grupo Mexico reported third quarter copper output down about 2 percent, hurt by lower production in the United States and Peru, and its shares closed down more than 4 percent on Thursday.
Contreras said work continues on the Ray expansion alongside feasibility studies, and that the company is becoming increasingly optimistic about restarting Hayden with capacity to process 1.4 million metric tons of copper concentrate a year, restoring smelting and refining capacity inside the United States.
The timing is policy aligned. Washington has prioritised domestic copper production and critical mineral supply chains, and analysts cited in the reporting said management intended to move ahead despite uncertainty over possible United States tariffs, while evaluating integration of Mexican concentrates and United States copper scrap. Copper rose 1.24 percent to 6.44 dollars a pound in the latest market tables even as copper miners fell 6.27 percent, a divergence that makes a funded brownfield expansion by an incumbent producer the more credible near term supply response.