First Quantum Minerals LtdF
First Quantum Minerals Ltd (TSX: FM) is a Vancouver-headquartered, multi-jurisdiction copper (with material gold and nickel byproducts) producer. Kansanshi (Solwezi, North-Western Province, Zambia; First Quantum 80% / ZCCM Investments Holdings, a Zambian state-owned company, 20%) is the flagship and longest-held asset: commercial production began Apr 2005, just 19 months after construction commenced, and it remains First Quantum's flagship operation with Proven and Probable reserves of 1,024.3 million tonnes at 0.51% copper at 31 Dec 2025, supporting a mine life of over 20 years -- the largest integrated metallurgical processing facility in Africa, employing over 13,000 people. Sentinel (Zambia, copper) and Enterprise (Zambia, nickel) round out the Zambian portfolio; Q2 2026 guidance for Enterprise alone was 30,000-40,000 tonnes contained nickel. Cobre Panama (Panama) is a major asset whose mining contract was voided by Panama's Supreme Court in Nov 2023, forcing a full shutdown -- 2026 saw only a partial restart (recommissioning of one of three milling circuits, processing existing ore stockpiles under regulatory approval for stockpile processing specifically, explicitly NOT a full mine reopening), contributing a negative $51M EBITDA impact in Q2 2026 alone from preservation-and-safe-maintenance costs prior to any resumed production; a full restart depends on a political/legal settlement that remains unresolved. Las Cruces (Spain, 100%) and Guelb Moghrein (Mauritania, 100%) are the company's other producing assets. Q2 2026 production included 100,487 tonnes of copper, 32,029 ounces of gold, and 11,246 tonnes of nickel, on total sales revenue of $1,522 million; full-year 2025 revenue was split approximately 82% copper / 10% gold / 5% nickel / 3% other by commodity.
Notable vs. Peers
- Financials score of 1/10 is weaker than the peer average of 5.7/10.
- Jurisdiction risk score of 4/10 is meaningfully riskier than the peer average of 7.7/10.
Lifecycle Milestones
Construction Milestones
5 of 5 reached- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
- Apr 2005 · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
Milestones are recorded only from a company's own dated disclosure. A milestone with no date shown is one we can confirm was reached but for which no date was disclosed — we don't estimate one. "Not yet reached" means exactly that, not that a date is missing. An "Expected" line likewise only ever reflects the company's own guidance (e.g. a study or permit decision targeted for a stated quarter) — most not-yet-reached milestones have none, and that absence means no such guidance has been disclosed, not that one is overdue.
Jurisdiction (40%)4/10
First Quantum's flagship is the Kansanshi copper-gold mine in Zambia's North-Western Province. Zambia is an established copper jurisdiction with resource-nationalism and fiscal risk; scored 4 like the other Zambian copper companies on this site. Its Cobre Panama mine has been shut since Panama's Supreme Court voided its mining contract in November 2023; 2026 brought only a partial restart (processing of stockpiled ore), and a full restart depends on a political and legal settlement that is not guaranteed. It also operates Sentinel in Zambia, Las Cruces in Spain and Guelb Moghrein in Mauritania.
Infrastructure (40%)10/10
A confirmed mill, confirmed road access, confirmed grid power, and a confirmed tailings facility at Kansanshi Mine.
Nearby producing mine (20%)Not yet researched
No producing mine within 50 km in our reference list (nearest listed: Lumwana (Barrick Mining Corporation), 68 km). That list doesn't cover every mining district yet, so a longer distance isn't scored as remote.
Acquisition Susceptibility
A relative ranking of how closely this company matches the profile of juniors that have actually been acquired — not a probability, and not a reason to buy. Acquisitions are rare: only a few dozen significant deals happen a year across a universe of thousands of juniors, so even a high score here describes a long shot. The strongest signal in the research, a producer that already owns part of the company, is scored from its disclosed strategic shareholders. A producer that is a joint-venture or earn-in partner on the project, rather than a shareholder, isn't captured yet.
How this score is built
- Disclosed pending dealSub-score: Not scored
No pending acquisition or merger disclosed (checked)
Not scored: having no deal in flight isn't held against a company.
Weight 26.25% - Producer's strategic stakeSub-score:9.8/10
Jiangxi Copper Company Limited holds 18.2% (reported 19 Mar 2026) See holders
An operating producer's stake scores 8 at 5%, rising to 10 at 20% (the take-over-bid threshold) and holding there up to 50%.
Weight 25% · 34% here - Distance to a producing mineSub-score:4.4/10
Nearest producing mine: Lumwana (Barrick Mining Corporation), 68 km
10 next to a producing mine, 8 at 20 km, 5 at 50 km, 0 beyond 200 km.
Weight 22.5% · 31% here - Lifecycle stageSub-score:5.5/10
Stage: Production
Feasibility and permitting score 10, where deals cluster, and production 5.5; earlier stages score less, down to 1 at grassroots.
Weight 15% · 20% here - JurisdictionSub-score:4/10
Zambia: jurisdiction score 4/10
Our jurisdiction score, used as is: higher means lower political and permitting risk.
Weight 6.75% · 9% here - CommoditySub-score:8/10
Primary commodity: Copper
Gold 10, copper 8, silver 5, nickel and uranium 4, others 2: most majors' deals are for gold.
Weight 4.5% · 6% here
Weight is each input's share of the full score. “Here” is its share of this company's score: inputs that aren't scored are left out and the rest re-weighted, never counted as zero.
Your Rankings
Management Team
Chief Executive Officer of First Quantum Minerals Ltd since May 2022 (COO from Jan 2021; director of strategy from 2020). Joined First Quantum in 2007, holding progressively senior site-based operational roles in Africa and Latin America, including General Manager of the Cobre Panama mine (2015-2020). Son of First Quantum's founder and former Chairman, Philip Pascall. Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Commerce, University of Western Australia; MBA, INSEAD.
Chief Financial Officer of First Quantum Minerals Ltd since 1 Sep 2022 (joined FQM in 2019 leading business development and investor relations). Before First Quantum, CFO of Nevsun Resources Ltd. (2017-2019, through Zijin Mining's completed acquisition); a founding member of X2 Resources, the mining-focused private-equity fund co-founded by Mick Davis, which failed to close any acquisition during his 2013-2017 tenure; and finance/corporate development roles at Anglo American across its copper, iron ore and platinum divisions in South Africa, the UK and Alaska. Bachelor of Business Science (Finance), University of Cape Town; CFA charterholder; MBA, Harvard Business School.
Chief Operating Officer of First Quantum Minerals Ltd since 1 Sep 2022. Joined First Quantum in 1996 for the design, construction and commissioning of the Bwana Mkubwa tailings project in Zambia -- his entire confirmed 29-year career has been built inside First Quantum, rising through General Manager roles at the Lonshi mine and Kolwezi tailings project (DRC), the Ravensthorpe nickel mine (Australia), and the Sentinel and Kansanshi mines (Zambia), then Director, Operations from 2019 (all Zambian operations, including government relations). Higher Diploma of Extractive Metallurgy, Technicon Witwatersrand (now University of Johannesburg); INSEAD Advanced Management Programme.
Chairman of the Board of First Quantum Minerals Ltd since 2025 (independent director 2021-2025). Over 40 years in mining operations, corporate development and executive management: CEO of Glamis Gold Ltd. (1999-2006) through its merger into Goldcorp Inc., then CEO of Goldcorp (2006-2008); CEO of Tahoe Resources Inc. (2009-2015) and Executive Chair (2015-2019) through its acquisition by Pan American Silver -- a tenure that also included the real, well-documented 2013 Escobal mine shooting of protesters by company security and the resulting Garcia v. Tahoe Resources litigation, settled in 2019 with a public apology; Director of Royal Gold, Inc. (2014-2025); and Non-Executive Chair of Boart Longyear Limited (2019-2021), leading its 2021 comprehensive debt recapitalisation. Mining Engineering degree, University of Nevada (1979).
Insiders, Investors & Smart Money
Notable shareholders and insiders whose involvement is worth knowing about, plus what we're seeing from institutional/large-investor activity.
No smart-money tracking (institutional/large-investor activity) for this miner yet — this is a planned feature, not live data.
No notable insiders tracked for this miner yet.
Reports, Presentations & Documents
First Quantum's flagship is the Kansanshi copper-gold mine in Zambia (80%, with ZCCM holding 20%); its other assets include Sentinel and Enterprise in Zambia and Cobre Panama. It does not publish a single company-level NPV or IRR, and the mine life shown is Kansanshi's.