Capstone Merges With Mantos Copper to Create Capstone Copper

Capstone Mining Corp. and Mantos Copper (Bermuda) Ltd. entered into an agreement to combine. Upon completion of the transaction, Mantos will be renamed Capstone Copper Corp. and will remain headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mantos has two operations in the north of Chile, Mantos Blancos and Mantoverde, which are located in the Antofagasta and Atacama regions.

Each Capstone shareholder will receive one Capstone Copper share per Capstone share and the existing Mantos shareholders will continue to hold Capstone Copper shares. Former Capstone and Mantos shareholders will own 60.75% and 39.25% of Capstone Copper, respectively, on a fully diluted share basis.

Once the transaction is completed, Executive Chairman and Founder of Mantos John Mackenzie will become the CEO of Capstone Copper. Darren Pylot, president and CEO and director of Capstone, will become executive chair of Capstone Copper.

The new board of directors will be composed of seven directors, including the Executive Chair, CEO and Lead Independent Director George Brack. Giancarlo Bruno, CEO of Mantos, will be responsible for the Chilean operations of the combined business.

Cashel Meagher, formerly senior vice president and COO of Hudbay Minerals Inc., will become president and COO of Capstone, effective January 5. Brad Mercer, senior vice president and COO of Capstone, will transition to a newly created role as senior vice president of strategic projects, effective January 5.

The transaction will establish Capstone Copper as a premier copper producer with a diversified portfolio of high-quality, long-life operating assets focused in the Americas with an extensive pipeline of near-term organic growth opportunities.

“This transaction is in line with our strategic vision of growing a multi-asset and sustainable copper business in the Americas,” Pylot said. “The combination of these two companies provides transformational near-term growth and further deepens our bench strength, particularly with respect to mine building, operational and leadership experience.”

The company will include high-quality operations with a combined 2021 copper production base of more than 175,000 metric tons (mt) of copper from four mines. The company will have a combined contained copper reserves of 4.9 million mt and contained copper M&I resources of 5.5 million mt, on an attributable basis.

The company will have more than 45% production growth by 2024 to about 260,000 mt of copper per year from fully financed projects with Mantos Blancos currently ramping up and construction under way at Mantoverde. Further transformational growth of approximately 45% to about 380,000 mt of copper per year with the development of Santo Domingo is also expected. Mantos’ Mantoverde operation is located approximately 30 km southwest of the Santo Domingo project.