By Adriano Marchese Mitsubishi is acquiring a one-third stake in Hudbay Minerals' copper project in Arizona for $600 million, creating a critical metals joint venture together. Hudbay Minerals said on Wednesday that the two companies have entered into a long-term strategic partnership for a 30% stake in Hudbay's Copper World subsidiary which owns the Copper World project. Mitsubishi, a Japanese general trading company with a history of investing in copper projects, will make an initial investment of $420 million as a consideration for the interest in the project, and then $180 million as a matching contribution within 18 months of the closing. Going forward as well, the Tokyo-based company will pay its share of future equity capital contributions. Hudbay said that the new investment facilitates about $1.5 billion investment in the U.S. critical minerals supply chain to deliver an anticipated 85,000 metric tons of copper production in the U.S. annually for the next two decades.