Faraday gives BHP 32% stake in San Manuel deal

Faraday Copper Corp. completed its acquisition of BHP Group Ltd.’s San Manuel project on Oct. 16, issuing 131,593,046 common shares, according to a company press release reported by Investing Australia.

The transaction leaves BHP subsidiaries with 137,993,046 Faraday shares, or about 32.0% of the company on a non-diluted basis. That is roughly one-third of Faraday and 6.4 million shares more than the consideration issued in the deal, according to Atlas360 calculations.

The shares issued to BHP subsidiaries were valued at $657.9 million, based on the five-day volume-weighted average price before closing, according to the reported press release. The supplied material did not give cash consideration or other financing terms.

The acquisition combines San Manuel with Faraday’s Copper Creek project, two adjoining Arizona properties that the company now groups as the Redhawk Copper Complex. The complex covers about 35,000 acres of private land in Pinal County.

San Manuel accounts for about 27,000 acres, or about 77% of the combined Redhawk land position, according to Atlas360 calculations. The property also includes access to existing regional infrastructure.

The project contains the former San Manuel Copper Mine, which operated from 1955 to 1999 as both an underground block cave and an open-pit operation. Public historical production records cited in the report show more than 4.2 million tonnes of copper output over its operating life, equivalent to an average of about 95,000 tonnes a year across 44 years, according to Atlas360 calculations.

For Faraday, the deal adds scale around an existing Arizona project at a time when copper developers are trying to prove larger and more durable resource bases. Historical production does not by itself establish current mineral resources, mine economics or recoverability.

Faraday said it plans to begin drilling at the San Manuel and Kalamazoo deposits in the coming days, starting with a 24,000-metre program. Those results are an early test of how the acquired ground fits with Copper Creek and whether the company can support a broader development plan.

The company expects to complete mineral resource estimates for both Copper Creek and San Manuel by mid-2027. It also expects a prefeasibility study in 2028 focused on copper cathode production and open-pit copper sulphide production; a prefeasibility study is an intermediate engineering and economic review, not a final construction decision.

BHP also gains representation at Faraday. Elaina Ware, BHP’s Vice President Resource Centre of Excellence, and Dominic Perrottet, BHP’s Vice President International Affairs and USA, joined Faraday’s board in connection with the closing.

Faraday’s next disclosed step is the planned start of drilling in the coming days after Oct. 16, 2026, at the San Manuel and Kalamazoo deposits, with an initial 24,000-metre program. The company’s expected resource estimates in mid-2027 and its expected 2028 prefeasibility study are the next dated development milestones in the supplied material.

Source: Press release reported by Investing Australia, Oct. 16, 2026