The South32 Ltd (ASX: S32) share price is in the red on Tuesday. That's despite the company revealing an exciting win for its Hermosa Project – the only advanced operation able to supply two designated critical minerals, zinc and manganese, within the US.
The Arizona-based project is officially the first mining project added to the US Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council's FAST-41 process.
Its inclusion on the FAST-41 dashboard is expected to support the company to gain federal permits for the development of the project's Taylor and Clark deposits.
Right now, the South32 share price is $4.19, 0.24% lower than its previous close.
For comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is down 0.32% at the time of writing.
Let's take a closer look at today's news from the diversified ASX 200 mining stock.
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Hermosa Project added to FAST-41 process
The South32 share price is falling this morning amid what CEO Graham Kerr dubbed "an important milestone" for its Hermosa Project.
Now the project has qualified for the FAST-41 process, the US government will work with the company to create a coordinated project plan. That's expected to provide a more efficient and transparent pathway for federal approvals.
Commenting in today's release, Kerr said:
The inclusion of Hermosa as the first mining project added to the FAST-41 process is an important milestone that recognises the project's potential to strengthen the domestic supply of critical minerals in the US.
South32 expects to complete the project's Taylor zinc-lead-silver deposit's feasibility study in the second half of 2023.
Meanwhile, work at the Clark manganese deposit has confirmed its battery-grade production could be sold to the North American electric vehicle supply chain.
The company will now kick off a definition phase pre-feasibility study at the Clark deposit. Its efforts will also see sample product sent to potential customers, while pilot plant production has already begun.
South32 share price snapshot
Fortunately, today's slump hasn't been enough to send the South32 share price into the year-to-date red.
The stock is still 6% higher than it was at the start of 2023. Though, it has fallen 10% since this time last year.
Meanwhile, the ASX 200 has gained 4% so far this year and 2% over the last 12 months.
