Teck Reports Thursday: A Strike at the Mine Behind 30% of Its First-Half Copper

Teck Resources reports its third-quarter results before the market opens on Thursday, October 29, 2026. The quarter it covers ended on September 30, 2026, more than three weeks before workers at Highland Valley Copper, the British Columbia mine Teck calls Canada's largest copper mine, went on strike.

Teck announced on Saturday, October 24, 2026, that strike action by United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7619 had begun and that "operations are currently continuing at a reduced capacity." The company said the effect on its overall production would depend on how long the labour action lasts, that its contingency plans give priority to safety and environmental management, and that it is committed to reaching a collective agreement that is fair and reasonable for employees and supports the operation's ongoing viability.

Teck is a Vancouver-based producer of copper and zinc. Its copper comes from Quebrada Blanca (QB) in northern Chile, Carmen de Andacollo in central Chile, Highland Valley Copper (HVC) in south-central British Columbia and its share of the Antamina mine in Peru. It mines zinc at Red Dog in Alaska and refines it at Trail in British Columbia. Since September 2025 it has been working toward what the two companies call a merger of equals with Anglo American plc that would form Anglo Teck, headquartered in Vancouver.

The Class B shares closed at C$82.68 on the TSX on Friday, October 23, 2026, up 0.12 per cent on the day, per TMX Money end-of-day data read on October 25.

The quarter ended before the strike began

Thursday's figures cover July 1 to September 30, 2026. Every tonne Highland Valley reports for that period was produced before any strike action, even though the report itself arrives five days into one.

Teck stated in its release of October 21, 2026, that the HVC collective agreement had reached the end of its term on September 30, 2026, the last day of the quarter, and that the union could begin strike action from the morning of October 24. The Canadian Press reported that the notice was a 72-hour one and that the local represents about 1,200 workers at the mine. Teck's release of October 24 said strike action had begun, on the first day the notice allowed.

Teck's October 24 release connects the strike to the guidance. It lists "the potential impact of the strike on production and previously issued guidance" among its forward-looking matters. Thursday is the first scheduled occasion on which the company can discuss that impact with a full quarter of figures beside it.

Neither Teck release nor the Canadian Press report set out the issues under negotiation. Teck's published position is its commitment to a fair and reasonable agreement.

Highland Valley's place in Teck's copper count

Teck holds a 100 per cent interest in Highland Valley Copper, about 17 kilometres west of Logan Lake, which produces copper and molybdenum concentrates. A concentrate is the ground and floated product a mine ships to a smelter, far richer in metal than the ore it came from. HVC produced 127,100 tonnes of copper in 2025, according to the guidance tables in Teck's second-quarter report.

The mine had a strong first half. Teck reported second-quarter HVC production of 42,800 tonnes, up on higher mill throughput, grades and recoveries as softer ore from the Lornex pit went through the plant. Over the six months to June 30, 2026, HVC produced 83,000 tonnes, about 30 per cent of Teck's total.

The table sets each operation's first half against its 2026 guidance, which the July 22, 2026 report left unchanged.

The Antamina figure is the company total less the other three operations. Mines do not produce in even halves, and Teck expects slightly lower grades at QB in the second half to be offset by higher throughput, so the last column shows where each mine stood at midyear and nothing more. On those figures HVC entered the third quarter further through its range than any other Teck operation.

The mine is also in the middle of a long build. In July 2025 Teck approved construction of the HVC mine life extension, which Teck said would extend operations from 2028 through 2046 at an average of about 132,000 tonnes of copper a year. The second-quarter report kept the capital estimate at C$2.1 billion to C$2.4 billion, spent between 2025 and 2028, with detailed engineering about 95 per cent complete.

Quebrada Blanca and the other items Teck set for the quarter

QB carries the largest guidance range in the company. Teck reported 55,800 tonnes in the second quarter and called it the third consecutive quarter of stable operating performance. Recoveries were 83.3 per cent. Recovery is the share of the copper in the ore that the plant captures in concentrate, so a higher figure means more metal from the same rock.

The other figure to know at QB is a construction schedule. The tailings management facility is the engineered storage for tailings, the finely ground rock left after the copper has been floated out. In July Teck said Rock Bench 5 was complete and that a secondary cyclone station, which it expects to improve sand deposition, was due in the fourth quarter of 2026. It was also evaluating building Rock Bench 6 in 2026 rather than 2027, at about US$100 million of additional capital spending that year.

Two other items fall inside the quarter Teck reports on Thursday. Carmen de Andacollo was partly suspended on July 17, 2026, after severe weather in Chile, and Teck said five days later that its guidance for the mine was unchanged. Red Dog's sales of zinc in concentrate were guided at 220,000 to 270,000 tonnes for the quarter, reflecting the normal seasonality of its sales.

The Chilean winter touched at least one large neighbour. Anglo American kept its 2026 copper production guidance of 700,000 to 760,000 tonnes in its third-quarter production report on October 20, and Reuters, in a report carried by Mining Weekly, said snow in Chile had weighed on that quarter. Anglo's Chilean mines are separate operations, so the comparison shows only that weather was part of the Chilean third quarter. QB's own figures come with Teck's report on Thursday.

The starting point: the second quarter's money

Teck enters Thursday from a strong second quarter. Teck reported revenue of C$3,605 million for the second quarter of 2026, up from C$2,023 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA, Teck's measure of operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation with items it treats as unusual removed, was C$2.2 billion. Profit attributable to shareholders was C$854 million.

Copper production was 25 per cent higher than a year earlier, and the price Teck received was higher too. Teck realised US$6.09 per pound in the second quarter, against US$4.36 a year earlier; the London Metal Exchange average for the quarter was US$6.05.

Costs moved the other way. Teck's copper net cash unit cost, the cash cost of producing a pound once by-product sales such as molybdenum and gold are credited against it, was US$1.64 per pound, down from US$2.02 a year earlier and below its 2026 guidance range of US$1.85 to US$2.20.

The balance sheet is the June one, the latest Teck has filed. Cash and cash equivalents were C$6,052 million at June 30, 2026. Debt and lease liabilities were C$4,808 million at June 30, 2026, leaving net cash of C$1,244 million at that date by Teck's own measure. Teck reported liquidity of C$10.3 billion as at June 30, 2026.

Teck declared its regular dividend of C$0.125 per share in the second quarter. It has made no share buybacks since July 25, 2025, because the merger agreement restricts them.

The merger waits on one regulator

The terms were set in September 2025. In their September 8, 2025 announcement the companies described Anglo Teck as "a global critical minerals champion and top five global copper producer, headquartered in Canada," and put the annual pre-tax benefit they expect from combining the two businesses at approximately US$800 million by the end of the fourth year after completion. Each Teck share is to be exchanged for 1.3301 Anglo American shares, leaving Anglo American's holders with about 62.4 per cent of the combined company and Teck's with about 37.6 per cent. Anglo American is to pay its own shareholders a special dividend of about US$4.5 billion. Teck's shareholders approved the merger on December 9, 2025, and Ottawa approved it under the Investment Canada Act on December 15, 2025.

Teck's second-quarter report said the merger remained subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Teck stated on September 1, 2026, that completion would come on the eleventh trading day after the remaining conditions are met or waived. Until then Teck reports as an independent issuer, on its own schedule.

Anglo American's October 20 report named China's anti-trust regulator as "the final outstanding regulatory milestone required for completion" and said expected completion by March 2027 was unchanged. Reuters reported on October 2, in a story republished by GBM and citing three unnamed people, that the regulator had asked Anglo American to commit to steady copper concentrate supply to China; Anglo American told Reuters it was making good progress, and Teck declined to comment. Neither company has published the terms of any such commitment.

What Thursday's report will cover

Teck's third quarter closed its books 24 days before the strike began, so no third-quarter figure measures the strike. Any production it costs falls after September 30, and no date for further talks has been published.

The company range was set before the strike, left unchanged in July and named by Teck itself as something the strike could affect. Whether the range moves is Teck's to state on Thursday.

The quarter also settles items Teck flagged in July: how Carmen de Andacollo came back from the weather, whether QB's grades and throughput moved as expected, whether Rock Bench 6 goes ahead in 2026, and where Red Dog's sales landed in their guided band.

The dates ahead

Teck releases its results before the TSX opens on Thursday, October 29, 2026, and holds its webcast at 8:00 a.m. Pacific, 11:00 a.m. Eastern. The QB cyclone station is due in the fourth quarter. Anglo American's completion target for the merger is March 2027, after the Chinese review. The length of the Highland Valley strike rests with the talks between Teck and USW Local 7619.