Tristan Pascall

FIRST Quantum’s prospects improved significantly last year after a period of harum-scarum uncertainty. First it deleveraged its balance sheet, which had previously sent CEO Tristan Pascall to consider the sale of a minority stake in the valuable Zambian copper mines. Saudi Arabia’s Manara Minerals and Mitsui & Co were thought to be suitors. Instead of selling equity, however, First Quantum completed a $1bn gold streaming deal – reportedly the biggest of its kind in a decade – which also allows it to retain production upside.

Then in August, First Quantum commissioned the $1.25bn expansion of Kansanshi, in Zambia. Coupled with Sentinel, Zambian copper output will be cash-flow positive again, a development no doubt bolstered by copper’s recent record-breaking performance. This, too, helped destress the company and also delivered a good surprise in that geologists uncovered a gold deposit at the mine’s expansion area. “We are very excited by it,” said Pascall, who expects a resource update in short order. First Quantum also bought a 15% stake in Australian explorer Prospect Resources, which is developing the Mumbezhi project near Sentinel. Sentinel has only 12 years of economic resource left to mine.

However, the big unresolved issued for First Quantum is a restart of Cobre Panama. The mine was suspended in 2023 following a legal bust-up with Panama’s government. In the end, First Quantum dropped legal proceedings against Panama, which responded by allowing the export of 120,000 tons of stored copper and the resumption of power to the site. But Jose Raul Mulino, Panama’s president, insists on a new fiscal dispensation ahead of a reopening. The land and resources belong to the country, he contends.