BVN Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A.
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Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. Q3 F2026 Earnings Call Transcript
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Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Compañía de Minas Buenaventura third quarter 2026 earnings results conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode, and please note that this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Mr. Sebastian Valencia, Head of Investor Relations. Mr. Valencia, you may begin.
Sebastian Valencia
Head of Investor Relations
Thank you. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us today to discuss our third quarter 2026 results. Today's discussion will be led by Mr. Leandro Garcia, Chief Executive Officer. Also joining our call today and available for your questions are Mr. Daniel Dominguez, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President of Operations, Mr. Aldo Massa, Vice President of Business Development and Commercial, Mr. Renzo Maher, Vice President of Projects, Mr. Jose Malga, Vice President of Sustainability, Mr. Juan Carlos Salazar, Vice President of Geology and Explorations, Mr. Roque Benavides, Chairman, and Mr. Raúl Benavides, Director. Before I hand the call over, let me first touch on a few items. On Buenaventura's website, you will find our press release that was posted yesterday after the market closed. Note that today's remarks include forward-looking statements that are based on management's current view and assumptions. While management believes these assumptions, expectations, and projections are reasonable in view of the current available information, we are cautioned not to place under reliance on these forward-looking statements. I encourage you to read the full disclosure concerning the forward-looking statements within the earnings results per release issued on October 29, 2026. Let me now turn the call to Mr. Leandro Otsega.
Leandro Garcia
Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Sebastian. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Buenaventura's third quarter 2026 results. Today, we will review our operational and financial performance and share our priorities for the coming quarters. After the presentation, we will be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session.
Juan Carlos Ortiz
Vice President of Operations
Please go to slide two.
Leandro Garcia
Chief Executive Officer
This slide contains our cautionary statement and important information regarding forward-looking statements. I encourage everyone to review it carefully. With that, let's move to the operational and financial highlights of the quarter. The third quarter once again demonstrates the strength of our portfolio and the resilience of our business model. Starting with production, consolidated gold production reached approximately 29,000 ounces, 6% lower than in the same period last year. Consolidated silver production was 3.4 million ounces, a decrease of 21% mainly due to lower planned silver grades at Yumpac. Copper production increased 7% to 13.6 thousand tons, supported by higher ore grade throughput at El Brocal. Turning to financial performance, total revenues increased 27% year-over-year to $545 million. This increase was mainly driven by higher realized prices together with higher copper sales volumes from El Brocal. EBITDA from direct operations increased The net income increased 34% to $261 million and the business margin expanded to 48%. Net income increased 50% to $268 million. Our balance sheet continues to strengthen. We ended September with approximately $1 billion in cash and a net cash position of $307 million. As a result, our leverage ratio improved to negative 0.25 times. This strong financial position also allowed the Board of Directors to approve an interim dividend of $0.5508 per share or ADS. Reinforcing our commitment to shareholder returns. Moving now to operation costs. This slide shows the evolution of C1 cash costs across our key operations. Starting with Uchubchaguan Yucpac, silver cash costs reached $11 per ounce. The year-over-year increase mainly reflected the continued use of more selective OCF mining methods at Yumpa, additional ground support requirements, the transition to an owner-operated fleet, and lower planned silver rates. These effects were partly offset by stronger by-product rates and lower commercial deductions. At El Brocal, copper cash cost was Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next, let's review the progress at San Gabriel. In slide five, please. During the quarter, we continue to advance the initiatives required to support the ramp-up. Mining activities continue throughout the quarter, with the mining rate stabilizing at 1.7 thousand tons per day by quarter end and generating an ore stockpile of approximately During the quarter, we also commenced undercut mining below cemented fields, and the ramp-up remains ahead of plan. Within the processing plan, the first phase of the filtration system reinforcement was completed during this quarter. Our focus is now on optimizing filter performance through the first half of 2027. Metallurgical recovery is expected to reach approximately 70% in the fourth quarter of 2026 this year. On the tailings side, filter tailings compaction also commenced during the quarter. The current facilities are expected to support throughput of 1.5 thousand tons per day in the fourth quarter. Additional drying areas are expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2027, ahead of the next dry season. While the ramp-up has faced temporary processing constraints, we are addressing these challenges systematically and safely. with a clear focus on reaching full operating capacity. Let me now turn to our strong cash generation during the quarter. The third quarter was marked by a strong cash generation. Turning to cash flow, a strong operation performance and $126 million in dividends received supported Let me go on now to our closing remarks. Before we open the line for questions, I would like to highlight a few key messages from Discord. First, San Gabriel. We are actively addressing the operational challenges we have identified, and our team remains fully focused on reaching full ramp up. We are optimizing filter performance and improving recovery rates, while tailings storage capacity continues to ramp up. Second, Our flagship operations. We continue advancing initiatives to unlock their full value. On the operational side, we are transitioning to an owner-operated mining fleet and increasing capacity at our mines. In parallel, we have increased our exploration budget, which allows us to extend life of mine, grow our reserves and resources, and develop near-mine targets. These two fronts complement each other, supporting both near-term efficiency and long-term sustainability. Third, preparing for El Niño. We have been working proactively on this front. We have already made significant progress. Our priority is the safety of our people and communities and the continuity of our operations. Finally, shareholder returns. This quarter, we distribute an interim dividend of Thank you and we will now be happy to take your questions.
Conference Operator
Operator
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, dial in by phone and press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. Make sure your mute function is turned off, and if you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, and then 2. The first question will come from Carlos de Alba with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Carlos de Alba
Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Yeah, thank you. Good morning, everyone. Good afternoon, actually. So first one is on San Gabriel. If you can give some color as to how the performance in October has been, maybe you can comment on the mining rate if you continue to be around the 1.7 thousand tons per day or given the inventory that you have already accumulated, maybe you are slowing down a little bit. And similarly on the processing plant, what is the rate that you have averaged in October? and just overall, do you see, do you expect to see an improvement already palpable in the fourth quarter in terms of production and cost, or this is something that we should maybe only see in 2027? And then my second question is on Trapiche, if you could maybe provide an update on the latest developments for that project. And also, would you consider Developing Trapiche with a partner that maybe not only de-risk the project from a financial point of view, given the size that it could, the size of the capex for the project, but also maybe complement your expertise. If you find someone that has open pit mining at altitude,
Leandro Garcia
Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Carlos, for your question. In general, we have advanced very well with San Gabriel. Juan Carlos should give you more color about how we are going forward with the recoveries and production. And in terms of Trapiche, of course, we are open to the risk, the investment. evaluating the possibility to have a partner there. And the current state of the project, maybe Renzo could give you an advancing view of which is the current point of the project. Please, Juan Carlos.
Juan Carlos Ortiz
Vice President of Operations
Thank you, Leandro, and thank you, Carlos, for your question. Regarding San Gabriel, we are running now in the processing plant an average of 1,400 tons per day. We are continuing with the ramping up of the processing plant. We expect to be running at about 1,700 tons per day in November, December. That should be the expected throughput for 2027. The processing plan by itself is not the constraint. The constraint is always downstream in the drying of the tailings and the compaction of the tailings. So that's gonna be the bottleneck for 2027. Regarding gold recovery, October will reach something around 60%. We are ramping up to 65%, 69%, very close to 70% along the quarter, up to December. So that's the average that we will have as an entry point in 2027, 70% gold recovery for 2027. Probably more information on that. We will be giving more color about that during the investor days a couple of weeks down the road in New York.
Leandro Garcia
Chief Executive Officer
Please, Renzo.
Renzo Maher
Vice President of Projects
Yes. In regards to Trapeze, we have assumed some drills, about 20,000 drills, half of it for exploring the primaries and the other half to get new samples, new fresh samples to continue with the We continue our work to deal with the project, advancing the engineering and permits for the access road and the power line are very important for the project.
Juan Carlos Ortiz
Vice President of Operations
Thank you.
Renzo Maher
Vice President of Projects
Thank you.
Conference Operator
Operator
The next question will come from César Pérez Novoa with BTG Pactual. Please go ahead.
César Pérez Novoa
Analyst, BTG Pactual
Yes, thank you. Two questions. Coming back to San Gabriel, with around 100,000 tons of ore stockpiled and the mining rates having stabilized at around 1,700 tons, what processing throughput What should we expect by mid-2027? And what is the timeline to reach nameplate capacity? Not the repairs, but the effective nameplate capacity and the effective production rates. And my second question is on El Brocal. You've reached 13,500 tons by the end of the third quarter, but grades and recoveries are declined. How much additional production growth Thank you, Cesar.
Leandro Garcia
Chief Executive Officer
Well, in terms of rocal, we are working on the expansion of throughput from 13,000 tons per day to 17,000 tons per day. However, the refined copper, the refines of copper will be almost the same. In the case of San Gabriel, we are preparing our budget for the following year. We are expecting to have a throughput between 2,000 and 2,500 at the end of the 27th, very close to the 28th. Sorry, your last question, Cesar, was around the tonnage of... Yeah, yeah, yeah.
César Pérez Novoa
Analyst, BTG Pactual
On San Gabriel, the name plate capacity, which I assume it would be late 27 or beginning 28, and then the production profile from Gold Answers.
Leandro Garcia
Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, but maybe Juan Carlos can give you the more color in the exact number of production. Okay.
Juan Carlos Ortiz
Vice President of Operations
Yeah, the average... Hi, sir. Thank you for your question. Yeah, the average production for 2027 is going to be in the order of 600,000 tons the whole year, 2027. In 2028, we expect to be around 800,000 tons per year, but at the end of 2028, we expect to reach nameplate capacity. Again, the problem is not in the processing plant. The bottleneck is actually in the capacity of the drying areas and also the available area in the dry stacking. In order to compact the whole production in an organized way. So we need to have more available area. Remember that the tailing dam in the case of San Gabriel is dry-use stacking. And we are starting right now at the bottom of a V-shaped valley. So we have a very small area at the bottom. And as long as we are making the compaction of the tailing, we move step by step upwards and gain more available area for compaction. The more area, Translate into more capacity for compaction or more tons of staling to be compacted. So we will be reaching the full nameplate capacity by the end of 2028.
César Pérez Novoa
Analyst, BTG Pactual
Okay. All right. Understood. Thank you.
Conference Operator
Operator
Again, if you have a question, please press star and then one. The next question will come from Tanya Jakuskonek with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst, Scotiabank
Good morning, everybody. I just wanted to finish off on San Gabriel. Maybe someone can just update me on what the ultimate recovery is expected. Is 70% what we're getting? It seems a bit low. So maybe what the ultimate recovery is and how do we get there? And then the second thing I want to have an update on San Gabriel is how is the structure of the tailings facility working? How's the repairs going and are we on track to repair this structure?
Leandro Garcia
Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Tanya. Juan Carlos, please.
Juan Carlos Ortiz
Vice President of Operations
Yeah, the expected recovery for San Gabriel, goal recovery, is in the order of 85%. We are ramping up. We have been needed to add additional reagents to facilitate the sanitation process. So we are in the process of implementing that right now, as of today. That's the reason we are ramping up to 70% by December. The gap to reach 85%, it's an ongoing process. Probably we need to add additional circuits to our flowsheet in order to achieve that number. That has to be tested. It's something that we have preliminary results so far, but we believe we are going to be reaching that in 2028. So it's going to take a little bit more time to get not only to full nameplate capacity throughput, but also to reach the full project expected recovery for gold. Regarding the repairs for the press filters, we are ongoing with the preliminary repairs. We started by the end of September with these works for repairing two of the three filters. We expect to have all the three filters set up, repairs, and with the supports, the steel and concrete supports, Ready by April, May next year. So at that time, after the rainy season in Peru, we will have our three breath filters for tailings ready for production.
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst, Scotiabank
Okay, and can you remind me when you get to steady state, which name plate capacity in 2028, what do you expect your mining cost per ton to be? and what would the production level in ounces be?
Juan Carlos Ortiz
Vice President of Operations
Okay, we should be around 1 million tons per year. That's about 3,000 tons per day. And the operating cost at that time will be in the order of $180 per ton.
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst, Scotiabank
Okay, and are we looking at production of 150,000 ounces? I just forget. What the grade will be ultimately with, you know, and I say that because your recovery is moving, your grade is moving. So what do you think a steady state production level is?
Juan Carlos Ortiz
Vice President of Operations
I think it's going to be 110, I think it's about a tangent about 110, 120,000 ounces of coal per year.
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst, Scotiabank
Okay.
Juan Carlos Ortiz
Vice President of Operations
That's helpful.
Carlos de Alba
Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Thank you.
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst, Scotiabank
And then I wanted to also ask, you mentioned you want to go to owner mining. at your operations can you number one remind me what operations you want to go to owner mining and number two what amount of capital should I be thinking about as you buy all the all the trucks and etc etc that's going to be high cap access and not to go to owner mining
Juan Carlos Ortiz
Vice President of Operations
Yes, the number one is Junpac. Junpac right now is 100% mined and developed by Buenaventura. We already bought in the order of 75% of equipment. We have an outstanding delivery of equipment underground fleet for the first quarter of 2027 in the order of $6 million additional equipment. Most of the capex is already being made. The equipment were delivered. In the case of Uchubchacua, we have about 75% of the mining done by Buenaventura, probably 50% of the developments. In the case of El Procal, we are right now with Probably we will reach, to point it the other way, we will reach 100% of the production from the underground mine in Buenaventura by the second quarter of 2027, and at the same time we will reach almost 50% of the developments. The other 50% of the developments in the more extended areas will be done by contractors. and finally, San Gabriel. We have now 100% of the production and about 75% of the developments done by Buenaventura.
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst, Scotiabank
Okay, so when I think of all of the capital you would need to put in for equipment and other, should I be thinking under $50 million?
Juan Carlos Ortiz
Vice President of Operations
I'm just trying to get a sense of... For next year, I think putting it all together, I think it's in the order of $25 million for next year. All the deliveries of underground fleet that will be delivered by first and second quarter, I think it's in the order of $25, $30 million. Okay.
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst, Scotiabank
That's helpful. Thank you. And then my final question for Daniel. Sierra Verde and the dividend, can you just remind us again what you're expecting? You know, we keep seeing a nice dividend come from them. What are you expecting for dividends for 2026 and how should I be thinking for 2027?
Daniel Dominguez
Chief Financial Officer
Well, this year Cerro Verde has already disbursed 270 million and we expect an additional dividend by the end of the year should be in the order of 50 million to 70 million.
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst, Scotiabank
Okay, so should I be thinking 300 million for next year?
Daniel Dominguez
Chief Financial Officer
Not necessarily. This is something that we have to discuss first. We are conservative with the plans of Cerro Verde, and we normally consider around 200, 250. But maybe we will have additional information for that in the investor day.
Tanya Jakusconek
Analyst, Scotiabank
Okay. Thank you so much for taking my question.
Leandro Garcia
Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Conference Operator
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we will be concluding today's audio question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Sebastian Valencia, Head of Investor Relations, for any webcast questions.
Sebastian Valencia
Head of Investor Relations
Thank you, operator. The last question comes from Luis Rojas of Profuturo FP. What is the remaining life of mine for Orgopanpan and Bomayo Mines as of today? Has any consideration been given to extending the life of mine of them? Yeah.
Juan Carlos Ortiz
Vice President of Operations
Do you allow me, Leandro? Yes, of course. Thank you. Well, regarding that, we are continuing doing exploration in both mines. In the case of Ocopampa, we see in previous years, we have a short-term life in the order of two, three years to continue mining as we know the structures, but we continue exploring underground and starting an exploration in the vicinity of the operations. In the case of Tambumayo, We are getting I think close to the end of the life of mine and by the second quarter of 2027 we will review if we can continue or make a partial hold of operations in the mine and be focused more on the districtal exploration where we are having very good results from the exploration done performed during this year 2026. Orca Pampa will keep running for at least 2-3 years more and in the case of Tambo Mayo we will review our expectation to continue mining in the second quarter of 2027.
Sebastian Valencia
Head of Investor Relations
At this time there are no further questions. I would like to turn the call over to the operator.
Conference Operator
Operator
Thank you. That concludes the question and answer session of today's conference call. I would like to turn it back over to management for any closing remarks.
Leandro Garcia
Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. I will want to thank you all for your time today and I wish you an excellent day and best for this year end. See you in two weeks in Buenaventura Day.
Conference Operator
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes Buenaventura's third quarter 2026 earnings results conference call. We would like to again thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.