Operator

The next question is from Lawson Winder from Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead.

Lawson Winder

Could I ask about the copper project pipeline? And whether or not your sort of order of preference has shifted at all, particularly with some of the smaller projects, such as Zafranal, San Nicolas and Schaft Creek. And then finally, with San Nicolas and Zafranal, would that be comfortable building those two projects alone, should they not -- should you guys not find a partner?

Don Lindsay

So the way we look at it is we have three projects that are in mining terms near term, meaning that they could all be in production by 2026. And those are QB mill, the QB mill expansion Zafranal and San Nicolas. In each of those cases, we have -- the team is working away advancing the projects. In Zafranal case, the hearing and Lima and Peru took place at the end of March was very successful, very impressive. I managed to get there myself and see it in action, and we've got very positive feedback from actually the regulator that time, and San Nicolas, a lot of work on there. And I should say on both of those projects, we still have a preference to have a partner. Of course, we have a partner on Zafranal is 80% are interested 20% with MFC. But we are in discussions with different parties on San Nicolas as well. And at some point, we'll put the pin in. But what's important to us is getting the right partner. It's really like an interview process more so than a valuation process. And I think all the parties involved are excited about the project, and at some point, we'll put the opinion. We do want to stay on that schedule to have it in production by 2026. So those are the three near-term. Galore Creek would then be what we would think of as medium term. It's a 50-50 joint venture with Newmont. We're working together updating the studies on that. And of course, it has a lot of gold in it. So it is got the real advantage of grade. So something for sure that's going to be a great mine. And then the other two are longer-dated Mesaba and Schaft Creek. But even with Mesaba, we're looking at different partner and development options there as well.

So I expect different announcements throughout the year. I can't tell you exactly when. But certainly, there's a lot of activity in the copper growth in, for sure. And we're also, I should say, in the market, hiring people and building the team internally. And so that if we ended up choosing to do it on our own, we'll have the capability to do so. But we really like what we've done with QB2 and our partnership with Sumitomo Metal Mining and Sumitomo Corp. I think the market really liked to it derisks the project, both financially and from a market point of view and great customers, great partners. So we think that's a pretty good model. So while we're at this stage, I think it's still worth pursuing. Sorry, a bit of a long answer, but there's a lot in there.