TORONTO (miningweekly.com) - Toronto-based HudBay Minerals is in the market for base-metal acquisitions, and mainly ones located in North America, acting CEO Warren Holmes said on Wednesday.

However, the firm, which ended the first quarter with C$910-million in cash, will also look at potential targets in South America, he told analysts and investors on a conference call.

"We continue to look at opportunities for acquisitions, we are focused very much on copper and zinc opportunities in North America in particular, and also South America," Holmes said.

HudBay mines zinc, copper, gold and silver from its 777 and Trout Lake mines, in Flin Flon, and announced in October last year it would restart the Chisel North mine and concentrator in Snow Lake, Manitoba, to feed its zinc smelter in Flin Flon.

Full production at Chisel North is scheduled to be under way by mid-year.

HudBay also has two large development projects - the Lalor project, in Manitoba, and the Fenix nickel asset, in Guatemala.

The first phase of development is already under way at Lalor, which was initially discovered as a zinc deposit, but where HudBay later found copper and gold zones too.

HudBay is working on a production ramp linking the Lalor deposit to the Chisel North mine, and expects to appoint a contractor for the access road to the site in the next few days, with road construction expected to begin this month.

At the Fenix project, the company expects to complete an updated feasibility study by the third quarter of this year, and should make a decision on restarting construction of the project before the end of 2010.

HudBay also continues to evaluate financing options and potentially taking on a strategic partner for the project, Holmes said.

CEO SEARCH

The search for a permanent chief executive is still ongoing, despite comments by Holmes in early March that he hoped to make an announcement by the end of that month.

The company is "working very hard on the matter", he said on Wednesday.

The top spot at HudBay has been something of a revolving door in the last two years or so, starting in January 2008, when incumbent Peter Jones was replaced by Allen Palmiere.

But after leading the company in an unpopular attempt to acquire rival Lundin Mining, Palmiere resigned as CEO in March 2009, to be replaced on an interim basis by Colin Benner.

Benner barely had time to warm the seat, though, before dissident shareholders succeeding in replacing HudBay's board with a new slate of directors, which reappointed Jones as CEO.

Things settled down somewhat after that, until HudBay announced in November that Jones would retire at the end of the year.

"We are very focused on finding someone," Holmes said on Wednesday.

"It will be when it will be."

Shares in HudBay fell 4,82% on Wednesday, to C$11,45 apiece by 16:46 in Toronto.

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