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

Leandro Garcia: Thank you for your question. Daniel, can come up with the answer.

Daniel Dominguez: Thanks for the question. For the minimum cash that we consider, we normally estimate two months of OpEx, which is around $50 million. So that would be our minimum cash. That is the first question. The second question is – the second answer for the – for your second question is, of course, we have a plan for the bond maturity, which is in 2026 in July. We are considering starting the renewal process at the beginning of year 2025. So we should count with a facility or a bond renewal plan executed by July 2025. We are evaluating the – of course, the interest rates. As of now, they are in a very high level, but we expect that in the year 2025, by midyear, they should have decreased substantially.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. And just as a follow-up, given where your cash balance is, which is a healthy one right now at $220-something million, at least as of September, should we expect that you come close to your minimum at any point? Or that is not in the cards?

Daniel Dominguez: No. If we are going – and we are getting close to our minimum, we will exercise our – the liquidity that we have with the local banks.

Unidentified Analyst: And those facilities are committed?

Daniel Dominguez: We have one which is committed. And the other ones, we are looking to be committed as well.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. So that is the – ideally, up to $150 million?

Daniel Dominguez: Exactly.

Operator: And our next question comes from Joslin Jensen.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Just regarding production and the strategy you have going forward. And your expectations for this year in Uchucchacua and Yumpag will produce around, well, up to 2.8 million tons just in the – you’re assuming that, that will be just in the fourth quarter?

Leandro Garcia: Joslin, million ounces no?

Unidentified Analyst: Yes. Yes. Sorry. Million ounces of silver.

Leandro Garcia: Juan Carlos, please go ahead.

Juan Carlos Salazar: Yes, this is our guidance. As I mentioned, Yumpag is going to be processing this year around 100,000 tons, 90,000 to 100,000 tons of core, with a grade over 25 ounces of silver per ton this year. And Uchucchacua will be processing also around the same figure, around 90,000 to 100,000 tons of ore in the area of 10 ounces of silver per ton equivalent because it is a combination of poly metallic – basically polymetallic gold with silver, lead and zinc. That equivalent grade of that material is in the order of 10 ounces of silver equivalent. So the combination of both that will be processed in campaigns – in batches in the Uchucchacua processing plant will bring us into the order of 2.5 million, 2.8 million ounces of silver by this last quarter of the year.

Unidentified Analyst: And it will be correct, like to multiply it by 4 to get to that 2024 number more or less or not?

Juan Carlos Salazar: In the case of Uchucchacua, yes. In the case of Yumpag, probably we will be getting closer to the average grade of the deposit, more in the range of 20 to 22 ounces is the average of – in terms of mine, instead of 25 ounces that we are putting ahead of time speaking out production for 2023. So it will be a little bit less production from Yumpag next year.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. And going forward, I saw in your presentation from Q2 that you are expecting to reduce the operating units. Could you give us more color about it, which operate operating units are you thinking to close/

Daniel Dominguez: This is in our presentation of the second quarter. Yes. Well, we don’t foresee any current operations to close. It is known by the market that we are struggling with reserves in Orcopampa and Tambomayo due to different reasons, but it is – and – maybe is that reference you have, but however…