Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. (NYSE:BVN) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Leandro Garcia: Thank you, Carlos. Thank you for your question. Well, the impact of the cost assigned to the CapEx instead of the operating cost, it’s kind of difficult to calculate, but we expect the cost of Yumpag will be around $16 per ounce — between $16 and $17 per ounce. From beginning the second quarter, we will have the exact calculation revealed in our financial state. In the case of Cerro Verde, the dividends, actually, we were not expecting any dividends in this quarter coming from the profit from them, which for us was a surprise. But still, we maintain the expectation to have in the total of the year, total dividends between $120 million and $150 million. We believe that with this level of prices that figure can be completed at the — fulfilled at the end of the year. I don’t know, maybe Juan Carlos or Daniel want to add some comment.

Juan Carlos Ortiz: Yeah, regarding the Yumpag, we have a total CapEx total of $8 million in the first quarter. That was not only part of the operation, but it’s the whole package of construction was breaking the ore and transportation of ore into the Uchucchacua facility. So as Leandro mentioned, it’s kind of a bulk number, but probably more linked to the production not only from the quarter, but for at least the whole year. So it’s a number that need to be taken with caution because it didn’t match exactly the amount of ounces of silver that we produced in the quarter. It’s a combination of properly CapEx and part of the effort dedicated to creating the ore and transport of the ore from Yumpag into the Uchucchacua processing facility. Maybe Daniel has some color or the specifics.

Daniel Dominguez: I would like to comment about Cerro Verde question. At this level of prices, Cerro Verde should be generating an EBITDA of around $1.8 billion. The working capital that we expect is around $0.7 billion to $0.8 billion, with very small CapEx, around $300 million to $350 million, which gives us a free cash flow of around $750 million. These are at level of prices of close to $9,000. Having there, the minimum cash already in their balance, they should be distributing dividends in the order of $750 million, which gives us the $150 million that Leandro mentioned at the beginning.

Carlos De Alba: Great. That would be great news. Just to follow-up on that, Daniel. Is this — has this been approved by Cerro Verde’s Board? Or is just an expectation at this stage?

Daniel Dominguez: These are numbers — sorry.

Carlos De Alba: No. Go on, sorry.

Daniel Dominguez: These are numbers that were shared by Cerro Verde, of course, at lower price of copper. We have adjusted them internally. But there is no — as you know, there is no dividend policy, but what they normally do is to pay dividends of the — in excess of the cash that they have — in excess of the minimum cash that they have, which is $500 million.

Carlos De Alba: Thank you. Thank you very much.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from Tanya Jakusconek with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Tanya Jakusconek: Hi, good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Daniel, I just have some very simple modeling questions for you and then I have some other questions on the assets. So can I just start on the simple modeling questions? Can I just — your D&A was kind of low at $42 million in Q1 as was your G&A at $10 million and as was the CapEx at $58 million. Can you review with me, what you’re expecting for those three numbers for the year?

Daniel Dominguez: Tanya, for the D&A as you know we — in the last two quarters of last year, we had — recognized the first stripping that we had in the asset for El Brocal reserves. So in the first quarter, it was a minimum of $5.5 million that we recognized related to these — to the deferred stripping. In the third and the fourth quarter, this amortization was over 23 — $20 million $23 million. So what we expect for the following quarters is, something about $35 million from depreciation and amortization.

Q – Tanya Jakusconek: $35 million, a quarter for the next three

Daniel Dominguez: Yes. For quarter, for D&A.

Q – Tanya Jakusconek: Okay. And then G&A.

Daniel Dominguez: G&A, as you know we have sold Contacto and there is a decrease in G&A from that we are not considering any more the Contacto figures. And we have been doing also other adjustments to our expenses. For example, we have reduced the size of our location, our headquarter. So we expect per quarter around $12 million of G&A.

Q – Tanya Jakusconek: Okay. Perfect. And then the CapEx, which I think was originally guided around $300 million for the year, it looks like you would have only done $58 million in Q1. So is that $300 million still viable?

Daniel Dominguez: Yes, this should be catching up the rate of expenditures. So, we

Q – Tanya Jakusconek: But San Gabriel, I asked about the sale of the Yanacocha royalty. I thought we mentioned it would done in April. Can we just talk about the balance sheet. Yet we are going to get money’s coming from the Cerro Verde dividend which is great but can you talk to me about what else are you seeing in terms of sources of cash besides your operating cash flow that’s coming from your mine. That other sources of cash from sales and/or banks and lending?

Daniel Dominguez: Yes, apart from our operating our EBITDA generated by our operations, we do expect the sale of one asset. We should be receiving this year between $180 million and $200 million from that sale. Then we expect the sort of early dividends, which could be between $120 million and $150 million. And in addition to that, we have already compromised three RCFs revolving facilities with three local banks. And these are — these three facilities are up to $200 million. Currently they are undrawn, but probably we will use them between the third and fourth quarter in order to fund any requirement for San Gabriel.

Q – Tanya Jakusconek: Okay. And the one asset sale, is that an asset or a royalty like — there’s a difference one is an asset and one is the royalty.

Daniel Dominguez: It’s a royalty.