In a move responding to its need for copper used in its electric vehicles, the Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Motors is sinking some $600 million into a large copper mine project located nearly 30 miles to the southeast of Tucson.
The project is a joint venture with Hudbay Minerals, which is headquartered in Toronto, and is seeing the car maker providing an initial $420 million investment, along with an additional $180 million to go for overall development costs.
The joint venture has been described as an “important milestone” for Hudbay, whose chief executive officer Peter Kukielski remarked that the company is geared to produce copper for the country’s “critical miners supply chain.”
It is expected that the project, officially called the Copper World mine, will be capable of producing upwards of 60,000 tons per day of copper concentrate.
Founded in 1970, Mitsubishi is one of the largest auto makers in the world with revenue surpassing $169 billion last year. The company has made a point in recent months of expanding both its electric vehicle production and market.
Two years ago, Mitsubishi announced its Momentum 2030 initiative, described as a plan to roll out more electric vehicles and models, with a “revamped vehicle” expected every year heading up to 2030.
The Copper World mine, situated in the northern Santa Rita Mountains, has been described by Hudbay as extending into a new era “Arizona’s rich mining heritage, while contributing to a sustainable energy future and America’s national security.”
The company is expected to eventually build a concentrate leach facility, as well as a solvent extraction and electrowinning plant at the site.
February 6, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
