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Contributing socio-economic value at Hermosa

24 SEPTEMBER 2025

Hermosa is helping grow and diversify the local economy by creating the highly skilled jobs needed to operate a “next generation” mine.

Our Hermosa project in Arizona’s Santa Cruz County is in one of the state’s least economically diversified regions, where unemployment is twice the state average.  

We are building the long-life Taylor zinc-lead-silver project, the Clark battery-grade manganese deposit has the potential to supply the North American electric vehicle market, and exploration of the Peake prospect continues to return high-grade copper results. 

Our goal is for 80% of Hermosa's workforce to be from the local community, equating to more than 700 permanent direct jobs once the project is fully operational. We are laying the groundwork for these outcomes through a range of initiatives: 

Workforce Development Taskforce

We are partnering with education institutions via the established Workforce Development Taskforce to equip local residents with the skills needed for skilled trades and operational careers. For example, electricians are among the first jobs needed at Hermosa but have some of the longest training timelines. We worked with Santa Cruz Country Provisional College District to bring a Tucson community college's electrician certificate program to the county. 

Workforce Development Executive Committee

This Committee brings together local education leaders to focus on post-secondary education, facilities development, resources and the training needs of local businesses helping to build an “all of community” workforce ecosystem beyond Hermosa itself. We have also partnered with the Nogales-Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce to launch a Vendor Readiness Program, enabling local businesses to find opportunities to supply materials to Hermosa. 

Centro remote operations centre

In April 2025, we broke ground on Centro, a remote operations centre in Nogales, around 45km from Hermosa. When operational, employees will use automation to, in part, remotely monitor and operate Hermosa's equipment and facilities. Centro’s office-like setting has been designed to provide inclusive, family-friendly jobs for those who have no mining experience or have historically been excluded from the industry. By locating the centre in Nogales, we are helping to distribute economic benefits more broadly across the county and contribute to increased local tax revenue.