Buenaventura Mining BVN

NYSE BVN

$35.42 +1.26 (+3.69%)

As of: Sep 9, 2026 · 3:59 PM EDT

Key Stats

Market Cap8.95 Bn

P/E12.78

P/S5.28

Div. Yield0.00

Total Debt (Qtr)725.87 Mn

Revenue Growth (1y) (Qtr)108.08

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About

Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S. A. A. is Peru's largest publicly traded precious metals company by market capitalization as of December 31, 2025, engaged in the exploration, mining, and processing of gold, silver, copper, and other metals in Peru. The company operates mines including El Brocal (Colquijirca-Marcapunta), Uchucchacua/Yumpag, Orcopampa, Tambomayo, Julcani, and La Zanja, and has operational control of the Coimolache mine in which it holds a 40.094% equity…

The company generates revenue primarily from the sale of gold and silver as concentrates or doré bars, and from the sale of copper, zinc, and lead as concentrates. Its revenue mix consists of approximately 59% precious metals and 41% base metals, with sales made to smelters and traders locally and internationally under contracts tied to London Bullion Market Association and London Metals Exchange prices.

The company operates through the following segments: Uchucchacua/Yumpag, El Brocal Polymetallic Pb-Zn, El Brocal Marcapunta, Coimolache, Tantahuatay Sulfides, San Gabriel, Trapiche, and Cerro Verde.

Uchucchacua/Yumpag: This segment involves the Uchucchacua and Yumpag mines, which are wholly owned and operated by the company. Uchucchacua is the company's largest single source of silver production. The segment produces silver, lead, and zinc concentrates using an underground mining method with mechanized bench-and-fill technique and a processing plant that employs differential flotation to create lead-silver and zinc concentrates. As of December 31, 2025, the segment had attributable mineral reserves of 99.56 million ounces of silver, 146,380 tonnes of zinc, and 82,630 tonnes of lead.
El Brocal Polymetallic Pb-Zn: This segment represents the Polymetallic Zinc-Lead-Silver zone of the Tajo Norte mine within the El Brocal operation, in which the company holds a 61.43% interest. It produces silver, lead, and zinc concentrates through flotation processing. The segment's attributable mineral reserves as of December 31, 2025, were 3.90 million ounces of silver, 24,250 tonnes of zinc, and 11,920 tonnes of lead.
El Brocal Marcapunta: This segment represents the Marcapunta mine within the El Brocal operation, also with a 61.43% company interest. It produces gold, silver, and copper concentrates using sublevel mining with continuous pillars and cemented hydraulic backfill for extraction, followed by flotation processing. Attributable mineral reserves as of December 31, 2025, amounted to 870,640 ounces of gold, 37.06 million ounces of silver, and 570,430 tonnes of copper.
Coimolache: The company operates this gold and silver mine in which it holds a 40.094% equity interest. The segment produces gold and silver doré bars via a heap leach process, with ore processed through a Merril-Crowe and carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery system. The processing plant has a capacity of 60,000 tonnes of ore per day. As of December 31, 2025, attributable mineral reserves were 186,280 ounces of gold and 8.63 million ounces of silver.
Tantahuatay Sulfides: This segment is a copper-focused project located in the Cajamarca department, in which the company holds a 40.094% interest. It consists of a flotation plant designed for the treatment of copper sulfides underlying the Tantahuatay gold-silver mineralization. The project is currently in the development stage, with significant copper mineral resources identified.
San Gabriel: This segment is a gold and silver project in which the company holds a 100% interest. The San Gabriel project reached full engineering completion in 2025, with the first gold bar produced on December 23, 2025, and commercial production scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2026. It will operate as an underground mine producing doré bars, with attributable mineral reserves of 1,826,910 ounces of gold and 3.11 million ounces of silver.
Trapiche: This segment is a copper and molybdenum project in which the company holds a 100% interest. The Trapiche project involves a porphyry deposit with copper and molybdenum mineralization located in the Apurimac region. It is currently in the development stage, with substantial copper mineral resources outlined in the company's resource estimates.
Cerro Verde: In this segment, the company holds a 19.58% non-controlling interest in the Cerro Verde mine, which is operated by Freeport-McMoRan Inc. The segment produces copper, molybdenum, and silver from an open pit mining complex located southwest of Arequipa, Peru. The operation includes two concentrator facilities and solution extraction and electrowinning plants. As of December 31, 2025, the company's attributable share of mineral reserves was 2,569.82 thousand tonnes of copper, 106.40 thousand tonnes of molybdenum, and 43.04 million ounces of silver.

The company holds a leading position in Peru's precious metals mining sector, being the largest publicly traded precious metals company by market capitalization in the country. It competes with other major mining firms such as Southern Copper Corporation and Freeport-McMoRan Inc., while maintaining competitive advantages through its diversified portfolio of gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead operations, its focus on low-cost production, and its strategic partnerships for exploration and development.

The company sells its metal production to smelters and traders both domestically and internationally. Key customers include Asahi Refining Canada Ltd, Glencore International AG, Trafigura PTE, and various Peruvian trading companies such as Trafigura Peru and IXM Trading Peru S. A. C., with a significant portion of sales exported to international markets.

Investment Thesis

▲ Bull case

San Gabriel's ramp-up is progressing faster than market expectations with operational challenges being systematically addressed through seasonal advantages and targeted engineering fixes, positioning the mine to reach 2,000 tons per day by December 2026 and full capacity of 3,000 tons per day by 2027, which will significantly boost gold production beyond current guidance and drive multi-year earnings growth as the asset transitions from commissioning to steady-state operations, leveraging Buenaventura's expertise from Tambomayo to optimize tailings management and processing efficiency. The company's balance sheet strength, evidenced by a $760 million cash position and net cash positive status after receiving $157 million in year-to-date dividends from Cerro Verde, provides substantial financial flexibility to fund organic growth initiatives like San Gabriel's ramp-up and potential Trapiche development without dilutive financing, while also enabling opportunistic share buybacks or strategic acquisitions that could unlock hidden value amid Peru's stable fiscal and regulatory environment post-election. Buenaventura's unhedged strategy in precious and base metals, combined with Cerro Verde's projected $1.2-$1.3 billion in annual free cash flow at current copper prices above $12,000 per ton, creates a powerful tailwind for dividend income that is significantly underappreciated by the market, with the potential for distributions to Buenaventura to exceed $200 million annually, directly supporting shareholder returns and reducing reliance on volatile commodity pricing for its own operations. The successful resolution of clay-related processing issues at San Gabriel through low-cost solutions like banana screens ($1 million CapEx) and operational adjustments in slurry density demonstrates management's technical competence in overcoming geological complexities without material cost impact, de-risking a key concern raised during Q&A and ensuring that ramp-up timelines remain intact despite initial teething problems in the crushing and milling circuits. Permitting advancements across the portfolio, including Stage one operating permit and water use license for San Gabriel, increased extraction capacity approvals at Yumpag (12,000 tons/day) and El Brocal (17,000 tons/day), and Environmental Impact Assessment clearance at Trapiche, collectively reduce regulatory uncertainty and provide a clear pathway for sustained production growth, with management's disciplined execution turning bureaucratic hurdles into managed milestones that support long-term strategy rather than impede it.

San Gabriel's ramp-up is progressing faster than market expectations with operational challenges being systematically addressed through seasonal advantages and targeted engineering fixes, positioning the mine to reach 2,000 tons per day by December 2026 and full capacity of 3,000 tons per day by 2027, which will significantly boost gold production beyond current guidance and drive multi-year earnings growth as the asset transitions from commissioning to steady-state operations, leveraging Buenaventura's expertise from Tambomayo to optimize tailings management and processing efficiency. The company's balance sheet strength, evidenced by a $760 million cash position and net cash positive status after receiving $157 million in year-to-date dividends from Cerro Verde, provides substantial financial flexibility to fund organic growth initiatives like San Gabriel's ramp-up and potential Trapiche development without dilutive financing, while also enabling opportunistic share buybacks or strategic acquisitions that could unlock hidden value amid Peru's stable fiscal and regulatory environment post-election. Buenaventura's unhedged strategy in precious and base metals, combined with Cerro Verde's projected $1.2-$1.3 billion in annual free cash flow at current copper prices above $12,000 per ton, creates a powerful tailwind for dividend income that is significantly underappreciated by the market, with the potential for distributions to Buenaventura to exceed $200 million annually, directly supporting shareholder returns and reducing reliance on volatile commodity pricing for its own operations. The successful resolution of clay-related processing issues at San Gabriel through low-cost solutions like banana screens ($1 million CapEx) and operational adjustments in slurry density demonstrates management's technical competence in overcoming geological complexities without material cost impact, de-risking a key concern raised during Q&A and ensuring that ramp-up timelines remain intact despite initial teething problems in the crushing and milling circuits. Permitting advancements across the portfolio, including Stage one operating permit and water use license for San Gabriel, increased extraction capacity approvals at Yumpag (12,000 tons/day) and El Brocal (17,000 tons/day), and Environmental Impact Assessment clearance at Trapiche, collectively reduce regulatory uncertainty and provide a clear pathway for sustained production growth, with management's disciplined execution turning bureaucratic hurdles into managed milestones that support long-term strategy rather than impede it.

▼ Bear case

Buenaventura's heavy reliance on Cerro Verde dividends, which contributed $157 million year-to-date in 2026 and are projected to reach $200 million annually, creates significant concentration risk as any downturn in copper prices below $10,000 per ton or operational disruption at the mine could abruptly halt this critical cash flow, leaving the company vulnerable given its own direct operations generated only $386 million in EBITDA in Q1 2026 despite strong gold and silver production growth. The San Gabriel ramp-up faces inherent geological constraints due to the narrow valley topography of the tailings dam, which limits available space for tailings storage and necessitates a gradual increase in throughput, with management explicitly stating they expect to reach only 2,000 tons per day by December 2026 and full 3,000 tons per day capacity not until 2027, implying a slower-than-anticipated contribution to earnings that may disappoint investors expecting faster payback on the project's CapEx. Rising input costs, particularly a 50% increase in diesel prices that constitutes 5% of total operating expenses, are translating into a persistent 2-2.5% drag on margins that management admits will likely persist for the entire year, with no indication of hedging or operational mitigation strategies beyond maintaining three-month buffer stocks, suggesting ongoing pressure on cost applicable to sales that could erode the impressive 62% EBITDA margin achieved in Q1 2026. The Trapiche project remains in a prolonged de-risking phase focused on acid consumption, pricing, and logistics, with management admitting they are "far from" a decision on solo development versus partnership, and requiring additional drilling and geotechnical studies before reaching feasibility, indicating that this potentially transformative asset is years away from contributing meaningfully to production and may never advance beyond the exploration stage without external funding or favorable sulfuric acid market conditions. Despite strong quarterly results, Buenaventura's corporate policy of remaining unhedged in copper, gold, and silver exposes the company to significant commodity price volatility, with management acknowledging past difficulties from hedging attempts like Tornado but offering no alternative risk management framework, leaving earnings and cash flow highly sensitive to swings in metal prices that could quickly reverse the current favorable market environment driving their strong performance.

Buenaventura's heavy reliance on Cerro Verde dividends, which contributed $157 million year-to-date in 2026 and are projected to reach $200 million annually, creates significant concentration risk as any downturn in copper prices below $10,000 per ton or operational disruption at the mine could abruptly halt this critical cash flow, leaving the company vulnerable given its own direct operations generated only $386 million in EBITDA in Q1 2026 despite strong gold and silver production growth. The San Gabriel ramp-up faces inherent geological constraints due to the narrow valley topography of the tailings dam, which limits available space for tailings storage and necessitates a gradual increase in throughput, with management explicitly stating they expect to reach only 2,000 tons per day by December 2026 and full 3,000 tons per day capacity not until 2027, implying a slower-than-anticipated contribution to earnings that may disappoint investors expecting faster payback on the project's CapEx. Rising input costs, particularly a 50% increase in diesel prices that constitutes 5% of total operating expenses, are translating into a persistent 2-2.5% drag on margins that management admits will likely persist for the entire year, with no indication of hedging or operational mitigation strategies beyond maintaining three-month buffer stocks, suggesting ongoing pressure on cost applicable to sales that could erode the impressive 62% EBITDA margin achieved in Q1 2026. The Trapiche project remains in a prolonged de-risking phase focused on acid consumption, pricing, and logistics, with management admitting they are "far from" a decision on solo development versus partnership, and requiring additional drilling and geotechnical studies before reaching feasibility, indicating that this potentially transformative asset is years away from contributing meaningfully to production and may never advance beyond the exploration stage without external funding or favorable sulfuric acid market conditions. Despite strong quarterly results, Buenaventura's corporate policy of remaining unhedged in copper, gold, and silver exposes the company to significant commodity price volatility, with management acknowledging past difficulties from hedging attempts like Tornado but offering no alternative risk management framework, leaving earnings and cash flow highly sensitive to swings in metal prices that could quickly reverse the current favorable market environment driving their strong performance.

Peer group

Peer Comparison

Companies in the Gold

S.No.	Ticker	Company	match	Market Cap	P/E	P/S	Total Debt (Qtr)
1	NEMCL	NEWMONT Corp /DE/	primary	134.87 Bn	16.78	5.23	5.08 Bn
2	B	Barrick Mining Corp	primary	76.06 Bn	11.65	5.02	0.02 Bn
3	AU	AngloGold Ashanti PLC	primary	55.29 Bn	14.52	4.68	1.58 Bn
4	AGI	Alamos Gold Inc	primary	15.55 Bn	7.00	6.98	0.32 Bn
5	IAG	Iamgold Corp	primary	11.83 Bn	18.70	3.21	0.45 Bn
6	EGO	Eldorado Gold Corp /Fi	primary	9.03 Bn	14.89	4.44	1.75 Bn
7	BVN	Buenaventura Mining Co Inc	primary	8.95 Bn	12.78	5.28	0.73 Bn
8	EQX	Equinox Gold Corp.	primary	8.08 Bn	16.37	3.05	0.61 Bn

Buenaventura Mining BVN

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