Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Garofalo’s surprise resignation announced at the close of trading on Friday, Dec. 4 stunned investors and the company’s stock dropped 14 percent over the next four trading sessions on the NYSE. The stock has fallen from a peak of $18.70 in December 2010 to Thursday’s close of $3.95 during Garofalo’s tenure.
Garofalo leaves Hudbay after overseeing a period of rapid growth with the opening of two new mines in Canada and the Constancia open pit copper mine in Peru, which is by far its largest operation. He also leaves the company with $1.2 billion in debt that is putting a squeeze on its cash flow.
“With copper prices plummeting from $2.90 per pound in May 2015 to $2.06 per pound as of this writing, Hudbay Minerals is not having a very good 2015, and things could get even worse heading into 2016,” according to a Dec. 10 story in Seeking Alpha, an investment website.