Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A., precious metals company, engages in the exploration, mining and processing of gold, silver, copper and (to a lesser extent) other metals in Peru.
The company operates El Brocal (Colquijirca-Macapunta), Uchucchacua/Yumpag, Orcopampa, Tambomayo, Julcani, and La Zanja mines, and has a non-controlling interest in the Coimolache mine. The company also owns an electric power transmission company, a hydroelectric plant, and a processing plant, as well as non-cont...
Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A., precious metals company, engages in the exploration, mining and processing of gold, silver, copper and (to a lesser extent) other metals in Peru.
The company operates El Brocal (Colquijirca-Macapunta), Uchucchacua/Yumpag, Orcopampa, Tambomayo, Julcani, and La Zanja mines, and has a non-controlling interest in the Coimolache mine. The company also owns an electric power transmission company, a hydroelectric plant, and a processing plant, as well as non-controlling interests in several other mining companies, including a significant ownership interest in Cerro Verde, a Peruvian company that operates a copper mine located in the south of Peru.
The company mainly produces refined gold and silver, either as concentrates or doré bars, and other metals, such as lead, zinc, and copper as concentrates, that it distributes and sells locally and internationally.
Business Strategy
The company plans to conduct future exploration programs to maintain a well-diversified metal portfolio. It is actively engaged in exploration and mine development programs, and is involved in several mining exploration projects with Southern Copper Corporation, Freeport-McMoRan Inc., and Tinka Resources Limited. Additionally, the company is focused on enhancing the efficiency and capacity of its mining operations. It is committed to its social and environmental responsibilities, and strives to excel in the prevention, mitigation, and rehabilitation of mining-related impacts. The company’s strategies include maintaining an active exploration program, and participation in mining exploration agreements.
Mining Operations
Orcopampa
The Orcopampa mine is located in the province of Castilla, department of Arequipa, approximately 1,350 kilometers southeast of the city of Lima, at an altitude between 3,800 and 4,500 meters above sea level. There are two routes of access to the property: through Peru’s Panamerican Highway starting in Lima and continuing to the city of Arequipa for a total distance of 319 kilometers from Orcopampa, and the route between Arequipa and Aplao-Viraco for a total distance of 333 kilometers. The Orcopampa mine is also accessible through a commercial flight directly from Lima.
Title, leases, and options
The Orcopampa mine is operated by Buenaventura. The company leases the rights to the mining concessions of Orcopampa from a group of private investors. This lease, which expires in 2043, requires the company to pay 10% of production value, subject to certain conditions.
Mineralization
The Orcopampa mine consists of an epithermal gold telluride deposit, hosted in lava flows and domes of the Sarpane complex (calc-alkaline to high potassium), of early Miocene to Holocene, which forms part of the tertiary metallogenic belt of Southern Peru (Au-Ag).
Production
The Orcopampa mine is in the production stage and has a treatment plant capacity of 3,000 tonnes of ore per day.
Uchucchacua/Yumpag
The Uchucchacua/Yumpag mine is wholly owned and operated by Buenaventura. Uchucchacua is located in the province of Oyón, in the department of Lima, approximately 265 kilometers northeast of the city of Lima, at an altitude of between 4,000 and 5,000 meters above sea level. Yumpag is located in the province of Daniel Alcides Carrión, in the department of Pasco, approximately 325 kilometers northeast of the city of Lima, at an altitude of 4,500 meters above sea level. The mine site is accessible through the Panamericana Norte highway, following the Lima - Huacho - Sayán - Churín - Oyón - Uchucchacua route for a distance of 283 kilometers.
Title, leases, and options
The Uchucchacua mining unit, including Yumpag, comprises 32 mining concessions and one beneficiation concession (concentrator). These 32 concessions represent the area of mines and exploration projects. Mining and exploration activities are carried out within these mining concessions. Uchucchacua’s concessions have a total area of approximately 45,600 hectares.
Mineralization
The Uchucchacua mineral structures, which include the Uchucchacua and Yumpag mines, are hosted by Mesozoic limestone of the Jumasha Formation and are classified as a mesothermal polymetallic deposit of silver-lead-zinc with important contents of manganese. The main mineralized structures are veins and ore bodies with high-grade silver content.
Julcani
Julcani is located in the province of Angaraes, in the department of Huancavelica, approximately 500 kilometers southeast of Lima, at an altitude between 4,200 and 5,000 meters above sea level. There are two routes to access the mine site, both departing from Lima: a road starting in Lima and continuing to La Oroya followed by Huancayo and Huancavelica for a total distance of 444 kilometers, and another road starting in Lima and continuing to Pisco and then through Huancavelica, which is 45 kilometers from the property, for a total distance of approximately 499 kilometers.
Title, leases, and options
The Julcani mining unit comprises six mining concessions and one beneficiation concession (concentrator). These six concessions represent the area of mines and exploration projects. Mining and exploration activities are carried out within these mining concessions. Julcani’s concessions have a total area of approximately 11,566 hectares.
Mineralization
Julcani is a large polymetallic deposit located in central Peru, which primarily produces silver and, as a byproduct, lead. The silver is mainly present in the form of sulfosalts in numerous veins with complex mineralogy. These veins are narrow and are hosted in domes of dacitic rocks, tuffs, breccias, and other tertiary volcanic rocks.
Tambomayo
The Tambomayo mine is located in the province of Caylloma, Arequipa region, at an altitude between 4,550 and 5,000 meters above sea level. There is one route of access to the property through Peru’s Panamericana Highway starting in Lima and going to the city of Arequipa for a total distance of 764 kilometers. Between Arequipa and Tambomayo, there is a 300-kilometer road along Cañahuas-Sibayo-Caylloma-Talta Huarahuarco. The site is also accessible through a commercial flight from Lima to Arequipa and by highway from Tambomayo.
Title, leases, and options
The Tambomayo mining unit comprises eleven mining concessions and one beneficiation concession (concentrator). These eleven concessions represent the area of mines and exploration projects. Mining and exploration activities are carried out within these mining concessions. Tambomayo’s concessions have a total area of approximately 32,876 hectares.
Mineralization
Tambomayo is an underground mine that is wholly owned and operated by the company. It is considered an epithermal deposit with quartz veins and mineralization mainly of gold and silver, with important contents of lead and zinc.
El Brocal
The Tajo Norte and Marcapunta mines are adjacent and are located 285 kilometers east of the city of Lima, and 16 kilometers south of the city of Cerro de Pasco. There are three routes of access to the property: through Peru's Central Highway starting in Lima and continuing to the city of Colquijirca for a total distance of 240 kilometers, through the Canta - Huaral highway for a total distance of 250 kilometers, and a commercial flight from Lima to Jauja followed by travel on the highway from Jauja to Colquijirca for a total distance of 142 kilometers.
Title, leases, and options
The El Brocal mining unit comprises one mining concession, one mining transport concession, and one beneficiation concession (concentrator). These concessions represent the area of mines and exploration projects. Mining and exploration activities are carried out within these mining concessions. El Brocal’s concession has an extension of approximately 34,386 hectares.
Mineralization
El Brocal produces copper, zinc, lead, and silver concentrates from the Tajo Norte mine, and copper concentrates from the Marcapunta mine. The Colquijirca mine consists of three important polymetallic deposits: Tajo Norte–Sur, which contains zinc, silver, lead, copper, and gold; Marcapunta, which contains auriferous mineralization in breccia oxides and arsenic copper enargite mineralization as a continuation of the mineralized mantles of the Marcapunta mine; and San Gregorio, which contains zinc.
La Zanja
The La Zanja mine is located in the district of Pulan, province of Santa Cruz, department of Cajamarca, 48 kilometers northwest of the Yanacocha gold mine, at an average altitude of 3,500 meters above sea level. Access to the operation site is available through the Panamericana Norte highway from Lima to Cajamarca, followed by a departmental road network that leads to Pulán, where the mining concession is located. The company operates the La Zanja mine.
Title, leases, and options
The La Zanja mining unit comprises 17 mining concessions and one beneficiation concession (concentrator). These 17 concessions represent the area of mines and exploration projects. Mining and exploration activities are carried out within these mining concessions. La Zanja’s concessions have an extension of approximately 13,453 hectares.
Mineralization
La Zanja is located within a large area of hydrothermal alteration, mainly related to epithermal gold deposits in high sulphidation environments, in addition to some bonanza Au vein epithermal systems, Cu-Au transitional epithermal-porphyry, and breccias pipe Cu-Au-Mo. The company has two ore deposits in production in oxide material: San Pedro Sur and Pampa Verde.
Coimolache
Coimolache is a gold and silver mine located in the district and province of Hualgayoc, in the department of Cajamarca, in northern Peru, at an average altitude of 3,900 meters above sea level. Access to the operation site is available through the Panamericana Norte highway from Lima to Cajamarca, followed by a departmental road network that leads to Chugur, where the mining concession is located. Coimolache is operated by Buenaventura, and is wholly owned by Coimolache, in which the company holds a 40.09% equity interest.
Title, leases, and options
The area of the concessions in which Compañía Minera Coimolache S.A. (CMC) performs exploitation and beneficiation activities totals 18,431 hectares, and the titleholder is Compañía Minera Coimolache S.A. There are 27 mining concessions and one beneficiation concession (beneficiation plant). These 27 concessions cover the area of the mines and the exploration projects. The mining operation and the explorations are conducted within the mining concessions. All the mining reserves and resources presented in this report are located within these concessions controlled by Compañía Minera Coimolache.
Mineralization
Geologically, the Coimolache ore deposits are located in a sequence of volcano-magmatic hydrothermal, predominantly linked to the regional mineralized sector in northern Peru. Coimolache consists of several areas of epithermal Au-Ag mineralization, contained in oxide material. Below the oxides level of the Cerro Tantahuatay area, there is significant copper, gold, and silver mineralization associated with pyrite-enargite-chalcopyrite (sulphides), which are present as disseminations and fracture fillings associated with an epithermal-porphyry transitional zone, breccias bodies multiphases, and porphyry intrusives.
Production
The Coimolache mine is in the production stage and has a treatment plant capacity of 60,000 tonnes of ore per day.
Cerro Verde
The company holds a 19.58% interest in Cerro Verde, which operates an open-pit copper and molybdenum mining complex located 20 miles southwest of Arequipa, Peru. The site is accessible by paved highway. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) holds a majority interest in Cerro Verde.
Title, leases, and options
In Peru, mining rights through claims and concessions are regulated by Peru’s General Mining Law. Cerro Verde’s major operations take place in the mining concession ‘Cerro Verde No 1, 2, y 3’ and in the Cerro Verde processing facilities concession ‘Cerro Verde Beneficiation Plant’ (hereinafter the ‘Beneficiation Plant’). Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde is the titleholder of the entire mining concession, all other concessions, and areas where the Cerro Verde operations are located. They are retained through the annual payments of rights for the concessions or the corresponding penalties for not exploiting them. Surface land is not owned; however, Supreme Decree 017-1996-AG granted mining companies surface rights of those concessions already titled by the time this regulation was passed upon formal declaration before the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM). Cerro Verde mining and main core concessions were declared and exempted from the farmland’s privatization processes. The Beneficiation Plant authorization includes the processing and recovery methods of ore entirely sourced from the mining concession.
Mineralization
The Cerro Verde mine is a porphyry copper deposit that has leachable oxide and secondary sulfide mineralization, and millable primary sulfide mineralization. The predominant oxide copper minerals are brochantite, chrysocolla, malachite, and copper ‘pitch.’ Chalcocite and covellite are the most important secondary copper sulfide minerals. Chalcopyrite and molybdenite are the dominant primary sulfides.
Production
The Cerro Verde mine is in the production stage and has an actual permitted milling plant capacity of 409,500 metric tonnes of ore per day, with the ability to annually treat up to 10% more for a total of 450,450 metric tons per day.
San Gabriel
The San Gabriel Project is located in the Ichuña district, in the General Sánchez Cerro Province of the Moquegua Region in southern Peru. The project is approximately 837 kilometers southeast of Lima and 116 kilometers northeast of Moquegua. The San Gabriel Project can be accessed from the cities of Arequipa, Moquegua, and Juliaca via a mixture of paved and unpaved roads.
Title, leases, and options
The San Gabriel Project comprises three mining concessions and one beneficiation concession (concentrator), covering an area of 53,581 hectares. Buenaventura complies with government-mandated annual payments for the maintenance of the mining property, license fees, and, if applicable, payment of any penalties incurred. Three royalties are payable on the area covered by the Ichuña 2 IMG concession. However, the producing asset is only subject to a royalty due to the part of the concession in which it is located.
Mineralization
The San Gabriel deposit shows many of the characteristics of an intermediate sulfidation epithermal deposit. An inlier of folded and faulted basement Jurassic-Cretaceous siliciclastic and carbonate sedimentary rocks of the Yura Group forms a basement high in the Ichuña District. It is overlain by a cover sequence of Cenozoic (Paleogene, Neogene, and Quaternary) volcaniclastic sediments and lavas. Mineralization is hosted in Jurassic–Cretaceous Yura Group sediments, with dark grey limestones and interbedded clastic rocks of the Gramadal Formation hosting the most continuous replacement-style alteration and mineralization. The San Gabriel deposit is approximately 3,000 meters long, 250 meters wide, and averages 170 meters in thickness. It has been drill tested to a depth of 700 m.
Trapiche
The Trapiche Project is located in the Apurimac region in south-central Perú and is located about 95 km south of the town of Abancay and about 8 km south of the Mollebamba village in the Antabamba Province. The location coordinates are UTM 728,672 E and 8,396,177 N. The elevation of the property and deposits range from 3,900 to 4,650 meters above sea level (masl).
Two access roads are being considered for access to the mine site from Chunchumayo. One is termed the East Access Road, which begins in Chunchumayo and ends in the township of Mollocco. The other road is termed the West Access Road, which begins in Chunchumayo and eventually ties into the road to Mollebamba. The main access road will be built as a joint effort by the Regional Government and the Federal Government of Peru.
Title, leases, and options
The Trapiche Project area consists of 33,065.00 hectares in 27 mining concessions, as well as an additional 2,300 hectares with land use rights that were granted by the Mollebamba village in 2011 through an easement agreement signed with Compañía de Minas Buenaventura and El Molle Verde S.A.C.
Mineralization
The Trapiche deposit corresponds to a typical porphyry deposit with Cu and Mo mineralization, which is related to the location of the hydrothermal polyphase quartz monzonite porphyry (QMP) and Breccia Pipe, which crosscuts sedimentary sequences of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous age. The mineralization is a Cu-Mo porphyry, constituted mainly by primary and secondary copper sulfides, molybdenite, and to a lesser extent, copper oxide. The highest volume of sulfides is located in the Breccia Pipe, followed by the quartz monzonite porphyry, and in a lower percentage, the Cu oxides located in the western border with contact to the breccia and calc-silicate sediments, associated with the monzonite intrusive dikes.
Tantahuatay Sulfides
The Tantahuatay Sulfides Project, as part of the Tantahuatay mining unit, is located in the districts of Chugur and Hualgayoc, province of Hualgayoc, region of Cajamarca, in the Andes Mountains of northern Peru. The center of this project has the following geographic coordinates: Latitude 6°44’25’’ S and Longitude 78°41’50’’ W.
Access to the Tantahuatay Sulfuros Project is by air from Lima (Jorge Chávez International Airport) to the city of Cajamarca (Armando Revoredo Iglesias International Airport), which is located 568 km north of Lima. Hualgayoc can be accessed from the city of Cajamarca by traveling northwest approximately 85 km. By land, the project can be accessed from Lima by traveling the Panamericana Norte highway, taking the detour to the city of Cajamarca, and continuing from Cajamarca to the project (total distance of 1,006 km).
Title, leases and options
There are 27 mining concessions (18,431 ha), which are located in the area of the current pits and exploration projects related to Tantahuatay Sulfides. All the mineral resources presented in this report are located within concessions whose titles are held by Coimolache.
Mineralization
The Tantahuatay Sulfides project includes high-sulfidation epithermal, porphyry, and skarn mineralization. The high-sulfidation epithermal deposit below the oxide level has mineralization that is dominated by sulfides, including minerals, such as silica, pyrite, enargite, chalcosine, and covelline.
Two large mineralization type domains have been differentiated:
Arsenical copper: The first corresponds to the mineralization in the high sulfidation epithermal system with enargite domain and vertical zoning to chalcosine-coveline and chalcopyrite in contact with exoskarn.
Non-arsenical copper: This is related to the chalcopyrite-sphalerite mineralization that is hosted in the copper porphyries and exoskarn.
Both domains demonstrate a transition to the mineralization of the intermediate sulfidation type with gray copper mineralization, cadmium-rich sphalerite, bismuthinite, galena, stibnite, and orpiment. Mineralization of intermediate to low sulfidation type has been differentiated, related to the emplacement of a diatreme.
Exploration
The company views explorations as its primary means of generating value for its shareholders, and it maintains a portfolio of active exploration projects at various stages of exploration for mineral resources in Peru. The company’s exploration department develops programs and budgets for individual projects each year, and it allocates, subject to board approval, the proper amount to fund each particular exploration program. Because of the nature of mining exploration and to maintain flexibility to take advantage of opportunities, the company allocates budgeted amounts by property or project only in the case of high probability of success. The company also allocates non-budgeted amounts over the course of the year to new projects that its technical team considers highly prospective.
The company has active joint venture exploration agreements with other mining companies, including Southern Copper Corporation and Minera Bateas. Additionally, the company holds a majority ownership of 19.88% of its current outstanding shares of Tinka Resources Limited. Consequently, the company has access to promising mining projects through exploration of its own mining properties, as well as third-party properties, while sharing the exploration and development risks with recognized partners, and increasing its exposure to new exploration technologies, while expanding its knowledge and experiences of management, geologists, and engineers.
Exploration Projects in Non-Operating Areas
Yumpag: The Yumpag project is located four kilometers northeast of the Uchucchacua mine. This project is an epithermal silver-manganese deposit hosted by Cretaceous limestone. Mineralization is structurally influenced by the Cachipampa fault, which also influences significant areas of silver mineralization at the Uchucchacua mine.
Trapiche: The Trapiche project is operated by Molle Verde S.A.C., which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Buenaventura. The project is located in the Apurimac region and belongs to the Andahuaylas-Yauri belt, which contains several iron, copper, and gold deposits.
Don Jorge: The project is located in the Puno department and consists of 7,481 hectares of mining concessions, hosting a series of polymetallic, silver-rich veins. In December 2022, the company obtained the approval for the Environmental Impact Statement for Exploration (DIA), and in October 2023, it received the ‘Inicio de Actividades.’ During 2024, the company executed 2,062 meters of drilling without positive results.
MLZ-Sulfides: The project is situated in the Cajamarca department and comprises a series of hydrothermal breccia pipes containing gold and copper mineralization. So far, the company has identified four economically viable breccia pipes.
Chaska: The Chaska project is located 7 kilometers south of the Tambomayo mine and hosts a series of epithermal veins with gold and silver mineralization. In 2023, the company started the 4th semi-detailed environmental impact study, which was filed in 2024. The company expects to receive the approval of ‘Inicio de Actividades’ at the beginning of 2026.
Maria Gracia: The project is located in the Lima department and consists of 10,400 hectares of mining concessions, hosting several geochemical anomalies related to a volcanic-associated massive sulfide deposit. In 2024, the company completed a gravimetric and magnetic geophysical survey and submitted the environmental permits known as ‘Ficha Técnica Ambiental de Menor Complejidad.’
In 2025, the company expects to have the environmental permit approved by the end of the second quarter and start the drilling program, which includes 3,500 meters.
Sales and Markets
The company also sells refined gold and doré, which is derived from its operations at Orcopampa, Tambomayo, Coimolache, and La Zanja to Asahi Refining, or ‘Asahi,’ which further refines the gold. During 2024, the price of gold supplied was determined based on, for the gold content, the quotation for gold at the London Bullion Market Association PM fixing in U.S. Dollars, and for the silver content, the quotation for silver at the London Bullion Market Association spot fixing in U.S. Dollars or at spot prices, minus, in each case, certain minimum charges, as well as charges for customs clearance and treatment of the gold (which varies depending on its gold and silver content). Pursuant to its agreement, the company is responsible for delivering the gold to Asahi’s designated flight at the Lima airport.
Hedging/Normal Sales Contracts
As of December 31, 2024, the company and its subsidiaries were completely unhedged as to the prices at which the company’s gold, silver, copper, and other metals will be sold (El Brocal maintained derivative instruments until March 2023).
Until March 2023, El Brocal used derivative instruments to manage its exposure to changes in the price of metals. Such derivative financial instruments were initially recognized at fair value on the date on which a derivative contract is entered into and are subsequently re-measured at fair value. Derivatives were carried as financial assets when the fair value is positive and as financial liabilities when the fair value is negative.
El Brocal’s hedge was classified as a cash flow hedge. The effective portion of gain or loss on the hedging instrument was initially recognized in the consolidated statements of changes in equity, under the caption other equity reserves, while the ineffective portion is recognized immediately in the consolidated statements of profit or loss in the finance costs caption.
Regulatory Framework
The company is required to submit a Closure Plan for new projects to the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) within one year following approval of an EIA or Program for Environmental Adequacy and Management (‘PAMA’), and inform MEM semi-annually of any progress on the conditions established in the Closure Plan. The company is also required to perform the Closure Plan consistent with the schedule approved by MEM during the life of the project and to set up a financial environmental guarantee that covers the estimated amount of the Closure Plan.
In 2017, the company’s Closure Plans were approved by MEM for all of its mines and advanced exploration activities.
According to new regulations for mining liabilities, the company has submitted intentions to update Closure Plans to MEM for all of its mining concessions with environmental mining liabilities: Lircay, Bella Unión, Chaquelle, Ayacucho, Santa Barbara, and Delta Upamayo are with post-closure activities but need to be updated in order to fulfill commitments.
The company has submitted Closure Plans for Los Negros and El Dorado, two new projects with mining liabilities managed by Minera Colquirrumi, a subsidiary of Buenaventura.
History
Compañía de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. was founded in 1953. The company was incorporated in 1953.
