Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. (NYSE:BVN) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Leandro Garcia: Yes. Yes. We will be preparing for giving you those numbers.

Tanya Jakusconek: Okay. Is it just – I’m just trying to understand, is it 2024 or is it more years than 2024?

Leandro Garcia: 2024 and 2025.

Tanya Jakusconek: 2025, Okay. And then yes. And then just I guess my final question for you is just any updates on – just geopolitically, what is happening in Peru for us that are far away and just read what is on CNN? So maybe we could have someone who actually lives in Peru, give us an insight on what is happening. And again, the protests that we keep reading about, et cetera. So maybe it would be really nice if someone can provide some insight into what is happening in Peru from a geopolitical standpoint, for investment, and also for anti-mining and protests. Yes.

Leandro Garcia: Yes, Tanja, Well, things are like still – the political situation is steady. The government, the current administration is trying to make all the efforts to move more investment, more private investment. The President, Boluarte, is having some trouble, some trips while in Alemania, and this – yesterday, the Congress authorized her to go to United States to [indiscernible] and to call of our investment in Peru, given the situation and given all the opportunities we have as a country, and there is an effort from the Minister of the Economy to maintain M2. Past this difficult economic situation because the lack of investment we have had in the last 2 or 3 years due to the political instability, but we are optimistic that the country is going in the right way.

We think that, Otarola, the Prime Minister, is trying to politically manage the situation, the – all the different needs that the country has. But we are much – we feel that we are much better than we were 1 year ago. So we are very optimistic. I don’t know if here with us is, of course, our Chairman, Roque Benavides. I don’t know, Roque, if you want to add some ideas?

Roque Benavides: Well, if I may say, the fact of having the Prime Minister – the Minister of Mines [indiscernible] body language, if I miss it, which gave a lot of support to the industry, I think there is [indiscernible] helping the industry to develop the project. And then obviously, the recession that we are [indiscernible] requires far more investment. And mining is its – the main source, if I may say.

Leandro Garcia: Thank you, Roque.

Tanya Jakusconek: Okay. So Roque, you think that then we are going to see a much more pro-investment support for investment in Peru going forward because of the recession and things that the current administration is doing?

Roque Benavides: There is no doubt about that. There is no doubt. I think the president travel into Germany, travel into the States in the next few days also shows the interest to attract more investments.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question is a follow-up from Carlos De Alba from Morgan Stanley.

Carlos De Alba: Yes. On El Brocal, just – apparently, costs will be increasing in the fourth quarter as the company recognized the deferred shipping costs associated with the lead and zinc inventory. Can you provide a little bit more color on costs were somewhat elevated in the third quarter? So it would be very interesting to know what the implications will be on this comment that you mad [indiscernible].

Leandro Garcia: Juan Carlos, please?

Juan Carlos Salazar: Yes, we have a price-striping account deferred receiving in our books. That accounts for about $51 million. Because we finished the mining of the current phase of the open pit, we are speeding up the amortization of this amount of money into – up to the end of this year. So it is going to be accelerated amortization because the open pit penalized, not only the mining but also the processing of the ore that we broke up to September this year. So all the stockpiles are going to be processed up to December of lead and zinc. And based on that processing rate, we will be doing the amortization of the $51 million that we have in the deferred stripping account in El Brocal mine. This is pretty much what the main impact on cost because it is a substantial amount in the coming months. It started in the third quarter. It is going to follow the same rate of amortization in this fourth quarter of this year.