Buenaventura Mining Q2 2025 Earnings Report

Buenaventura Mining EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.40
• Consensus EPS: $0.30
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.10
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Buenaventura Mining Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $369.50 million
• Expected Revenue: $338.29 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$31.21 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Buenaventura Mining Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2025
• Date: 7/24/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Friday, July 25, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. engages in the exploration, development, construction, and operation of mineral processing business. The company explores for gold, silver, lead, zinc, and copper metals. It operates operating mining units, including Tambomayo located in the Caylloma province, Orcopampa Unit located in the province of Castilla, Uchucchacua located in province of Oyón, Julcani located in province of Angaraes, Peru, as well as San Gabrie located in the province of General Sánchez Cerro, in the Moquegua region. The company owns interests in Colquijirca, La Zanja, Cerro Verde, El Brocal, Coimolache, Yumpaq, San Gregorio mines, and Trapiche mining unit. In addition, it produces monohydrate manganese sulphate; and operates hydroelectric power plants. Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. was incorporated in 1953 and is based in Lima, Peru.

Buenaventura Mining Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: EBITDA from direct operations rose to $130 million in Q2 2025 versus $107 million in Q2 2024, while net income increased to $91 million from $71 million.
• Positive Sentiment: Copper production climbed 28% year-over-year, driven by resumed operations at El Brocal and higher ore processing volumes.
• Negative Sentiment: All-in sustaining costs per pound of copper jumped 63% year-over-year, primarily due to lower byproduct credits.
• Positive Sentiment: San Gabriel project reached 88% completion, with ramp-up slated for Q3 2025 and the first gold pour expected in Q4 2025.
• Positive Sentiment: Buenaventura closed the quarter with $589 million in cash, $860 million of debt (0.56× leverage), and redeemed its remaining 2026 bonds.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Compania de Minas Buenaventura Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a 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.

[Sebastián Valencia Carrasco, Senior Financial Analyst - IR at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss our second quarter twenty twenty five 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. Alejandro Armosa, Vice President of Sustainability Mr. Renzo Maher, Vice President of Projects Mr. Juan Carlos Salazar, Vice President of Geology and Explorations and Mr. Raul Benavides, Director. Before I hand the call over, let me second touch on a few items. On Buenaventura's website, you will find our press release that was posted yesterday after the market close. Please note that today's remarks include forward looking statements that are based on management's current views and assumptions. While management believes that its assumptions, expectations and projections are reasonable in view of the currently available information, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward looking statements.

[Sebastián Valencia Carrasco, Senior Financial Analyst - IR at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

I encourage you to read the full disclosure concerning the forward looking statements within the earnings results press release issued on 07/24/2025. Let me now turn the call over to Mr. Leandro Garcia.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Thank you, Sebastien. Good morning to all and thank you for joining us today to discuss the quarterly results of the company. On Slide two is our cautionary statement, important information that I encourage you to read.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Today, we will be discussing our performance for the second quarter of twenty twenty five, highlighting key achievements and strategies moving forward. After the presentation, we will be able for our Q and A session, where our team will be happy and eager to answer your questions. Continuing with the next slide, please. I would like to highlight a few key areas that contribute to our strong second quarter twenty twenty five results. Our EBITDA in the second quarter twenty twenty five from direct operations was $130,000,000 compared to $107,000,000 reported in the second quarter of twenty twenty four.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Our net income in the 2025 was $91,000,000 compared to the $71,000,000 in the net income in the second quarter of twenty twenty four. In the second quarter of twenty twenty five, silver production reached 3,600,000 ounces, 11% lower compared to the 4,000,000 ounces produced during the same period in last year, mainly due to lower production at Jumpac, Tambomayo and Huican. Copper production increased 28% year over year, primarily due to halted operations at El Brocal in the 2024 and it was related to the impact on copper ore processing during the period. Gold production was twenty seven thousand three hundred and forty five ounces compared to 33,119 ounces produced in the second quarter of twenty twenty four, primarily due to decreased production at Tambomayo and Orcopampa and partially offset by the increased production at La Sanja and El Brocal. In the second quarter twenty twenty five, Buenaventura initiated the sale of part of the Cerro Verdes copper concentrate, Approximately 20,000 metric tons have been sold by the quarter's end, out of a total of approximately 40,000 metric tons expected for the full year 2025.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Cerro Verde announced a new dividend distribution of 59,000,000 on July 24, corresponding to Buenaventura's equity share. These dividends will be distributed in August, resulting in a total of $108,000,000 The total CapEx for the quarter amounted to $107,000,000 with $82,000,000 allocated to the San Gabriel project. The second quarter ended with a cash position of $589,000,000 and a total debt of $860,000,000 resulting in a leverage ratio of 0.56 times. Finally, on July 23, when Aventura redeemed the remaining 149,000,000 of its 2026 bond. Moving on to our cost structure in Slide four.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

The all in sustaining costs expressed in terms of copper for the 2025 increased by 63% compared to the same period in the previous year. It is important to highlight that year over year increase in all sustaining costs was primarily driven by lower byproducts credit. Moving on to the cost applicable to sales strength. As you can see, copper cash increased mainly due to slightly lower grades. Silver cash increased in line with expectations due to lower production at Julkani, Tambomayo and Yumpa compared to the previous year.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Gold cash has increased primarily driven by lower volumes and grades at Tambomayo and Orcopamp. On the next slide, we will present the free cash flow generation. The second quarter twenty twenty five cash position decreased during the quarter, mainly driven by net cash outflows from investing activities and dividends paid to our shareholders. The $49,000,000 in dividends received from Cerro Verde are reflected in the operating cash flow. This dividend was received in April.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

In addition to these drivers, the EBITDA to free cash flow reconciliation reflects Buenaventura significant CapEx investments related to San Gabriel. Moving on to Slide six. This slide shows San Gabriel cumulative progress reaching 88% overall completion by the second quarter of twenty twenty five, primarily driven by finishing the engineering and the procurement as well as the construction as it is at 86% of advance. Second quarter twenty twenty five CapEx related to San Gabriel was $82,000,000 As of March 2025, San Gabriel's as of June, sorry, 2025, San Gabriel's total CapEx has reached $588,000,000 We anticipate commencing the ramp up pace in the third quarter of twenty twenty five, followed by the production of the first gold bar in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty five. However, these milestones remain subject to the timely approval to the necessary permits.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

On the next slide, we are showing the processing plant's progress. Currently, the primary crusher mechanical works are at 100%. The SAK and Bolz mechanical works are at 100% also. And finally, the sealed tanks mechanical works are at 98%. Moving on, we can see the progress of the main components of the plant.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Moving on to Slide nine, we are showing the progress at the filter tailings plant that currently is at 87%. To conclude the presentation, I would like to share a few final thoughts. First, we are committed to our strategy, a stable and continuous production of our flagships. We are making progress with optimization efforts to increase throughput and are continuously evaluating our operating portfolio. Exploration is part of our DNA.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

We are fully committed to extending the life of mine of our asset through continuous exploration effort. Third, we maintain our financial stability. Consistent with our commitment to the market, we redeemed the remaining twenty twenty six notes. And finally, San Gabriel project achieved at 88% overall progress, meeting our planned targets. We remain on schedule to deliver our first gold bar by the fourth quarter of twenty twenty five.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Thank you for your attention, and I will hand the call back to the operator to open the line for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. And the first question comes from the line of Carlos De Alba with Morgan Stanley.

[Carlos de Alba, Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

A few questions on San Gabriel. First one is, can you provide a little bit more color on the pending permits? And where are you in the process? I mean, we're already in the third quarter. Do you have you had any conversations with the authorities?

[Carlos de Alba, Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Do you believe you're going to get them on time to have the first bar produced in the fourth quarter? Yes, more details would really help. The second point on question on San Gabriel is just on CapEx. How much more investment is required in the second half of twenty twenty five? And what is the expected, if any, disbursement in 2026?

[Carlos de Alba, Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

And then finally, can you comment on the pace of the expected ramp up with first metal hopefully being produced in the fourth quarter, when do you expect to get to full capacity?

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Thank you, Carlos. Thank you for your questions. For the first, the question asking for your question asking for repair permits, we actually have invited the authorities to visit the plant in around September. We are going in advance with this because there is only a very simple permit that is the actual permit to begin the throughput, the production there. We don't foresee a greater risk in that permit.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

We have to consider that for the country is the only project that is going to be beginning production will be inaugurated in this year. And I think it is important to show that good news for the country. In terms of CapEx, maybe it's the total CapEx we still in the same level we announced in our last conference, we have not increased any additional CapEx. It will end around $720,000,000 and $750,000,000 And maybe Daniel will give you more color on that. And finally, the ramp up.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

The ramp up will take all the 2026, and we should stabilize after the ramp up in the production we have announced that we will be 100 and between 100,000 ounces and 120 ounces. I don't know, Daniel, if you can take the answer.

[Daniel Dominguez Vera, Vice President of Finance & Administration and CFO at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Yes, Leandro. Thank you. Carlos, basically, the total amount of the CapEx for San Gabriel will be in the order of $720 to $7.50 And we have already disbursed close to $600,000,000 as of June 2025. So what we expect is to disburse between $130,000,000 and $160,000,000 for the construction as the end of the year.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Juan Carlos Ortiz can give us more color or more ideas around about the ramp up that you asked Carlos.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Carlos, yes, we are planning the detailed ramp up in connection with the mine, the processing plant and the dry stacking facility for holding the tailings. The mine is running okay. We have most of the equipment on the underground mine already in Peru. We have two out of four fleets already delivered to the site. We will complete the fleet by Epiroc by November.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

So we are okay with the production and mine development. The processing plant is progressing. You see in the earlier presentation how it's progressing. But in October, we will start the wet commissioning with slurry. So it's part of the process.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Any natural project will lead to pass these steps. So we don't anticipate any major projects, but no more than the usual ones to run a new facility of this process kind of processing. Next year, after the wet season, in Peru, the wet season in between January to March, April, we will start the activity of filtering and drying the tailings and placing these tailings in horizontal layers inside the tail reservoir, the dry stacking. Probably that's the activity that we will need to put a lot of emphasis because it's obviously new for Santa Gabriel. It took a while, a few months to fine tune this process in Campo Mayo.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

So probably we need to be more cautious and more conservative about the amount of tailings that we can dry and compact in the dry stacking facility, particularly because it's a V shaped valley. We need to start from the bottom of the valley. So the area the available area at the bottom is smaller. So it's going to be tricky to start ramping up production at the bottom of the valley. So we are taking care of the commissioning and the detail for the initial ramp up of San Gabriel operation.

[Carlos de Alba, Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

You, Ricardo. Just one follow-up maybe on that. When have you started mining already? When do you expect to start mining? Would you accumulate some inventories ahead of starting the plant?

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Yes. We already have around 100,000 tons of ore in the surface of about three grams. That will be the first material to be fed into the processing plant for the commissioning wet commissioning process. We already have in the order of 100,000 tons of ore in surface right next to the processing plant.

[Carlos de Alba, Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

All right.

[Operator]

Thank And your next question today will come from Cesar Perez Novo with BTG Pactual. Please go ahead.

[César Pérez Novoa, Head - Equity Research at BTG Pactual]

Yes.

[César Pérez Novoa, Head - Equity Research at BTG Pactual]

Good morning to everyone and congratulations for your results. I have two questions on my end. At Uchucchacua, while silver production increased in the quarter, the mine encountered a decrease in silver grades as it shifted extraction towards polymetallic stops. Has this already stabilized in the third quarter? Or are we going to see some shift later in the year towards bottom level stops?

[César Pérez Novoa, Head - Equity Research at BTG Pactual]

And would it be reasonable to assume that costs will improve in the second half? And then my second question relates to El Brocal. The company mined higher ore in the second quarter. Is this strategically continuing for the rest of the year conditioning, of course, on high copper prices? And how should we think about cost?

[César Pérez Novoa, Head - Equity Research at BTG Pactual]

And maybe you could tie that up with the commercialization of the Cerro Verde concentrate and if that is improving the overall for your entire copper baskets? Those would be my questions. Thank you.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

You, Cesar. Thank you very much for your questions. Well, the answer for Chaco and Brocal can be given by Juan Carlos. And the part of the commercialization of the concentrates, maybe Aldo can give us more color. Please, Juan Carlos.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

JOSE Sure. Regarding Uchucchacua, we mentioned in the comments of Uchucchacua in the quarter, we detect we have a monitoring system for seismic events in the mine. So we detect some seismic activity near our current operational area at the bottom of the mine. So we will be cautious about that. So we took all the people out of the area.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

We bring a consultant people on board to analyze all the data and they recommend to do some additional backfilling, particularly with wet days, ancillary tails backfilling. So we're bringing all the pipelines, extend the network of pipelines to bring the wet tailings down to the bottom of the mine. That will be done in this quarter, in the third quarter. And we will monitor what is effect of this backfilling in that area by the fourth quarter. If everything is stable, we will resume mining in the bottom part of the mine by the fourth quarter.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

It's important to mention that the bottom part of the mine only contribute with around 20% of the total contribution total production of Fujuchakwa. So it's not a very sensitive area. It's a high grade, but it's kind of small in proportion to the rest of the mine. We will continue ramping up production in other areas of Chaqua. So we expect to reach 2,000 tonnes per day throughput by the end of the year.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Right now we are close to 1,700 tons per day. In doing that, moving from 1,700 to 2,000 tons per day, we expect to keep reducing costs operating costs in the range of 10% by the end of the year. And this ramp up will continue in 2026. So the idea is to get closer to twenty five three thousand tons per day. So that's pretty much the strategy in Chaco.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Regarding El Brocal, we mined slightly higher grades in the second quarter. We will continue to do that in the third and fourth quarter, but still in the order of 1.45% copper. That's going to be our target copper production. But what we are doing right now is trying to give in a higher priority to the mining blocks or the areas with high gold and silver content. So we are shifting a little bit more pressure on developing the blocks that have 1.45% copper, but at the same time have higher gold and silver production.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

That will continue also for the rest of the year. That's pretty much what the strategy for the breakout.

[César Pérez Novoa, Head - Equity Research at BTG Pactual]

Okay. I would assume that if you sorry, go ahead.

[Aldo Masa, VP - Business Development & Marketing at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

No, no. I'm going to add the part of the concentrate of Cerro Verde. As we have announced, we started commercialization of 40,000 tons of copper concentrates of Cerro Verde. And as everybody knows, the market is very tight for this kind of material. It's a very clean concentrate.

[Aldo Masa, VP - Business Development & Marketing at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

And of course, for us, it's a lever to sell this concentrate with the other materials of Buenaventura. We already have received some improved terms to some of our call centers and the idea is to keep selling those concentrate during the next years in order to have better terms for our own material.

[César Pérez Novoa, Head - Equity Research at BTG Pactual]

All right. Thank you very much for the statement. And just coming back, if you're tapping 1.45% grade in copper and you're also maximizing the gold and silver contact at El Brocal. I would assume that this is going to positively impact costs for the second half of the year. Am I making the correct assumption here?

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Yes. On a cash basis and also in a cash cost basis, we have larger credits coming from gold and silver. The cost remaining cost of copper will be diluted or reduced. Yes, we agree on that. I don't have a particular number what target it could be, but as a general concept, it will be positively impacting the cost on a copper basis.

[César Pérez Novoa, Head - Equity Research at BTG Pactual]

All right. Thank you very much for the detailed explanations, gentlemen. Thank you.

[Operator]

And your next question today will come from Tanya Jakusconek with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Great. Good morning, everybody, and thank you so much for taking my three questions. So my first question is on Cerro Verde. So I'm just trying to understand, Daniel, maybe you can help me on this one. This copper concentrate that you are purchasing, which is above and beyond the production that you get from Cerro Verde, How should I be thinking about this?

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Should I just be putting 20,000 tonnes through your revenue line for the second half of the year adjusted for treatment charges? Is that how I should be thinking about it? I just don't know how I should be modeling this sort of new it's not production, but this material?

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Yes, Tanya. Thank you for attending our conference and for your question. This copper of Cerro Verde, it's a back to back almost. Aldo, maybe we can you can help us with the color of this.

[Aldo Masa, VP - Business Development & Marketing at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Yes. Tanja, we already have sold 20,000 tons of dry metric tons of copper concentrate in the first half, and our idea is to sell 20,000 tons more in the second half. We bought from Freeport, Cerro Verde at Benchmark, And the idea is to have some margins when we sell into the market to the spot market. But talking about prices and QP, we are selling back to back. We don't have any issues or any risk in our sell to the final consumer.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

The margin we can expect for this tonnage, it's around $2,400,000 $2,600,000 This give us volume sales, but it's not a big margin. You can model with $1,200,000 each 10,000 tons approximately.

[Daniel Dominguez Vera, Vice President of Finance & Administration and CFO at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

If I may add, Tanja, sales of these concentrates go to our revenues line and the purchase goes to the cost of sales. Of course, the sales have this margin of in this case, it was $1,400,000 We expect something like that for the second half of the year as well. This margin will be seen at the sales level at the revenue level.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. I got that. And should I just be thinking I mean, I know this is I don't know how to model like for 2025 is okay. But is this a process that you're going to be continuing? Should I be thinking that this continues into 2026 as well?

[Aldo Masa, VP - Business Development & Marketing at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

JOSE We already have a contract for the next two years until the year 2027, but we have to weigh a little bit how will be the market for the next years. This year, the difference between the benchmark and the spot was very high. We are not sure how big will be the next two years. Of course, the idea is that we will have a margin, but we are not sure.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. Okay. No, that's helpful. Thank you so much. And then my second question is understanding Trepiche.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

We haven't heard about this one for a while. I know that we were waiting for environmental permits in the 2025 and we were targeting a feasibility study for mid-twenty twenty six. Can you review with me the timing of some of these parameters and what exactly is happening at this asset?

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Sure. Exactly, Tanya. We are in the process of concluding the questions additional questions we have received from the authorities for the environmental study impact. And actually, the feasibility study will be finished in the third quarter half of the twenty twenty six. Maybe Alejandro can give us more color about the permitting and the rental for the feasibility. Please go ahead.

[Alejandro Hermoza, VP - Sustainability at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Yes, Leandro. Yes, you mentioned the environmental impact study, it's coming on track. You mentioned we are solving the final observations and we're still on target to having this approved by the end of the year. We should not have any delays on that. That's in terms of the permission.

[Alejandro Hermoza, VP - Sustainability at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Of course, we're also working on the continuation of any other exploration activities, environmental permits related with that.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay.

[Renzo Macher, VP - Projects & Innovation at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

And in regards to the feasibility study, we just finished unloading the last 10 columns. Just remember that this is secondary surface leaching process. So it takes like one hundred and eighty to two hundred days.

[Renzo Macher, VP - Projects & Innovation at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

So we are currently processing that information and updating our geochemical models to have more clarity into asset consumption before starting to close the study, the designs, the feasibility of the signs and then start proceeding with the study estimates about how much can this cost to build and operate.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. All right. And then I know you said the end of feasibility Q3 of twenty twenty six. And obviously, you will file that to the market so we can see this feasibility study?

[Renzo Macher, VP - Projects & Innovation at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Yes. We the pre feasibility studies in the market, so as soon as we update it as soon as we reach feasibility level, we will be updating it again.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. Perfect. Look forward to getting that next year. And then my final question, of course, is on San Gabriel. So thank you so much.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

And I'm looking at your time line on your Slide six. I see that you still have the tailings to do the water dam filter plant. Yes, of course, power line connection and obviously the first gold pour. So all of that from Q3 into Q4. I have a question for you.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Number one, the stockpile, we were supposed to reach 300,000 tonnes by October 2025 grading 4.5 to five. Is this still a target? Because you just mentioned you only have 100,000 tonnes. Is that still correct?

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Yes. Well, there is a ramp up coming. Juan Carlos can give you more detail about what we are thinking today.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Yes. We have 100,000 tons as of today by the June. The target we are reviewing that target. We are developing the mine. We're putting more effort on driving the tunnels like the rounds and the main galleries, not necessarily investing too much money on building up a large stockpile.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

We have the opportunity to do so, but we are reviewing that in order to put more effort on deepening down the mine development instead of building a large stockpile on surface. So we have everything in place, as I mentioned earlier, in order to put more pressure and try to bring more ore to the surface. But we review that number probably we're going to be smaller than that and start with maybe 200,000 in that order of magnitude that will be equivalent of two months of stockpile in advance before starting the running on a continuous way the processing plant. So two months of stockpile is kind of enough for a sure stockpiling of the early start of the commissioning process.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. And then you are you have a very, very tight a pour to commercial production. I think it's like a month or so, maybe two months, I don't know. Can you remind me your definition of commercial production? Is it thirty days at 60% of the mill capacity?

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

What is your definition so I understand how you're going to be able to do this quickly?

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Yes. We understand that the project is finished when we are working twenty days continuously and we produce two ore bars.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Two gold bars.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. So two gold bars, twenty days continuous production. Okay.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

I don't know. Lorenzo, do you want to

[Renzo Macher, VP - Projects & Innovation at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

At 65 capacity, which

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

is At 65, sorry, exactly. 65 capacity, yes.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. All right. And then so that gets me my commercial production. And then my understanding is that it's going to take you one year to ramp up a very small operation. Can someone explain to me why it would take so long for such a small mine to ramp up?

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

No, during 2026. We are not going to take one year. No, during 2026.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. So how long will it take to get to steady state? So we pour the gold bars in Q4 in December. We're ramping up in 2026. When do we get to steady state?

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Well, the tailings, Juan Carlos explained the all the work that we have to make all with the tailings. We have to work on having a process, a continuous process. And we estimate maybe in the second half of twenty twenty six, we can reach the target of 3,000 tons per day. I don't know, Juan Carlos, CARLOS maybe you can DE give us more detail. There are

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

three main components of San Gabriel, the mine, the processing plant and the tailing facility. So the ramp up for the mine and the ramp up on the processing plant, as Leandro says, is going to be achieved probably in the first half of twenty twenty six. The earlier the better. We're pushing to do it faster. And the last component, because they are in series, the last one is the compaction of the dry tailings in the dry stacking facility.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

The reservoir that we designed and we built is a valley that is in a V shape. So the bottom part of the valley is very narrow. So even if we have 3,000 tons per day in the mine and 3,000 tons per day processing capacity at the plant, we need to place 3,000 tons per day at the bottom of the valley and the areas are very limited in there. So it's kind of tricky at the beginning to place all the tailings at that rate in that narrow area. Whenever as long as you are placing tailings, the area is growing layer by layer.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

It's making every layer you place, the area gets bigger because it's wider, the valley ten, five meters, 15 meters on top of the previous horizon. So it's something that we are going to gain layer by layer. So it's not a problem on the long term. It's kind of the main restriction that we have on the short term until the point that we have reached certain area in which we are we can install and place dry tailings at the same rate of mine and the processing plant.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. So for some reason, I was under the impression some of those tailings were going back in underground as paste fell. I guess that's not the case.

[Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

It was an option in the past, but because it's tailings with smaller cyanide content, we believe it's not safe to bring that tailings back in the underground mine that has slightly acidic water and might generate a risk for people working on the ground.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. All right. That's where I think I lost my connection. I thought some of it was coming back. Okay.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

So it's really a constraint by the valley for tailings. And once you get to a certain height, right, I guess, you've got to get through that very narrow area. You build it up to a certain height. Once it's a certain height, it should be easier than for you to go. So sometime in the second right, we are going to be at steady state.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

That's correct.

[Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Very interesting and look forward to seeing this line up and running.

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Thank you.

[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 Sebastien Valencia, Head of Investor Relations for any webcast questions.

[Sebastián Valencia Carrasco, Senior Financial Analyst - IR at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Thank you, operator. The first question comes from Omar Arianeda of Bienci Compass. Can you comment on the impact of the road blockades in the mining ops and particularly Buenos Aires operations? And regarding Cerro Verde, yesterday, the company announced a $300,000,000 dividend. Do you have established the use of those proceeds?

[Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Thank you, Omar. Well, we actually, we have no major problems in the blockage roads in our operations. We have been working continuously. And regarding the Cerro Verde dividend, well, it comes along with all the all our cash generation, and we should use these resources for continuous CapEx, investing in our explorations and why not evaluate a possible dividend for our shareholders.

[Sebastián Valencia Carrasco, Senior Financial Analyst - IR at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

At this time, there are no further questions. I would like to turn the call over to the 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 García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura]

Well, you. Thank you very much for the time and effort to dedicated to joining us today. Your participation and your inputs are greatly appreciated. Thank you again and have a wonderful day. Thank you.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes Buenaventura's second quarter twenty twenty five earnings results conference call. We would like to thank you again for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Analysts

• Sebastián Valencia Carrasco, Senior Financial Analyst - IR at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura
• Leandro García, CEO & General Manager at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura
• Carlos de Alba, Equity Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley
• Daniel Dominguez Vera, Vice President of Finance & Administration and CFO at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura
• Juan Carlos Ortiz, Vice President - Operations at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura
• César Pérez Novoa, Head - Equity Research at BTG Pactual
• Aldo Masa, VP - Business Development & Marketing at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura
• Tanya Jakusconek, Analyst at Scotiabank
• Alejandro Hermoza, VP - Sustainability at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura
• Renzo Macher, VP - Projects & Innovation at Compañía de Minas Buenaventura