Hartree to take first 330,000 tonnes of Nussir copper concentrate under Blue Moon offtake

New York-headquartered global commodities company Hartree Partners will take the first 330,000 tonnes of copper concentrate from Blue Moon Metals' Nussir project in Norway, Christian Kargl-Simard, the critical metals developer's chief executive officer, told Fastmarkets on Monday July 6.

Key takeaways:

  • Nussir is expected to produce 14,600 tonnes of contained copper annually, with plans to potentially double output.
  • Final regulatory approvals and an EPC contract award have cleared the way for mine construction and development.
  • First production is targeted for Q4 2027, with full commercial production expected by Q2 2028.

Offtake agreement tied to future Nussir copper production

Nussir will produce about 32,500 tonnes per year of copper concentrate grading 45% copper at full rate, containing roughly 14,600 tonnes of copper, Kargl-Simard said, adding that the aim is to eventually double production at Nussir, which could shorten the offtake delivery period.

The offtake covers a fixed volume rather than a set number of years, and is separate from a precious metals stream held by Hartree, Kargl-Simard told Fastmarkets. The base metals offtake was tied to Hartree’s initial $12.5 million equity investment in Blue Moon, he said.

The project will mine ore at an average grade of 0.81% copper, or 0.99% on a copper-equivalent basis, on a proven and probable reserve basis, Kargl-Simard said. Assumed recoveries are 96% for copper, 84% for gold and 95% for silver.

The Nussir concentrate contains negligible levels of deleterious elements, Kargl-Simard said. Blue Moon did not provide detailed concentrate specifications or assay data for elements such as arsenic, lead, zinc, mercury, bismuth and antimony, and the characterization was not independently verified by Fastmarkets.

Concentrate will be shipped from the port at the mine site in Norway in lots of 5,000 tonnes, Kargl-Simard said.

Offtake pricing, treatment and refining charge (TC/RC) terms and structure — term versus spot — were not disclosed.

Production timeline and ramp-up plans

First production is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2027, ramping to full commercial production in the second quarter of 2028, Kargl-Simard said.

The offtake disclosure follows a series of construction and permitting milestones announced on June 25, when Blue Moon awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Nussir processing plant to MOMEK Services AS, a unit of Norway’s MOMEK Group.

In the same announcement, the company said the Norwegian Environment Agency had approved the mine waste management plan and amended the project’s discharge permit, while the Norwegian Directorate of Mines approved the updated mine operating plan on June 18. The approvals cleared the last outstanding regulatory condition for the start of mine operations, according to the June 25 release.

The Nussir project has a life of mine of 13 years and a nominal mill throughput of 6,000 tonnes per day, according to the June 25 release. Life-of-mine average annual production is put at 19,000 tonnes of copper equivalent, including an average of 3,600 ounces of gold and 546,000 ounces of silver. The feasibility study was completed by Worley Europe Ltd and published in April 2026.

Copper concentrates benchmark

Fastmarkets calculated the weekly copper concentrates TC index, cif Asia Pacific — the midpoint between smelter and trader buying levels — at $(162) per tonne on Friday July 3, more negative by $2.50 per tonne from $(159.50) per tonne a week earlier.

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