Hochschild Mining plc

Hello and welcome to Hochschild Mining's 2026 interim results presentation. If you would like to ask a question during today's call, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad, or you can submit written questions via the webcast. I would now like to hand the call over to Eduardo Landin, Hochschild Mining's CEO, to begin. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our presentation of our H1 results. Here with me is Eduardo Noriega, our CFO, and Charlie Gordon in London. Charlie, please, if we can go to page three. Okay. Well, first, let me say that we have on each one the strongest ever five-year risk financials. We have produced 150,000 ounces, a little bit more. Revenues went up 62% up to $844 billion. Our adjusted EBITDA went up 119% to $492 million. The EPS went up 208% to 0.37 cents. Our Tributory Only Sustaining Cash Cost was $2,430. and $48 per ounce, gold equivalent. We end up with $390 million in cash and our net cash position is of $51 million. The dividend that we have established following our policy is 4 cents equivalent to $21 million. What do we have to do with the rest of the second half? Well, Manarosa reorganization is on track. We'll talk about during this presentation. Rurupata, the environmental permit was submitted to the Peruvian government at the date that we planned to do so. We continue working on Monte do Carmo on engineering and the decision or the FID will be at the end of the year. We continue having a strong ESG metrics and we have also reviewed our oil in sustaining cash cost for the end of the year and the new range is between 2380 to 2500. basically the reasons for this review is being effects in the different countries that we operate and also the price the gold and silver price that affect directly to work work work profit sharing and royalties for example So, I mean the guidance stay in terms of production stay as it was defined at the beginning of the year and the only sustaining cost is the figures I just gave it to you. Okay, I'll pass the presentation to Eduardo Noriega to go through the financial results. So, Charlie, if you can go to page five, please. Go ahead, Eduardo. Thank you very much, Eduardo, and good morning. So this strong set of financial resources as Eduardo described as a report that have here results are mainly characterized by strong metal prices but also strong operations and the recovery of our operational capabilities in Brazil. Revenue was up 62% that was mainly driven by higher prices, gold and silver prices. that was partially upset by scheduled lower houses produced. Cost of sales went up 11%, mainly due to, as I said, scheduled higher tonnage, including waste movement in Mara Rosa to recover our operational capabilities. We also had the impact of higher prices in royalties, worker profit sharing, export tax in Argentina, and other items directly correlated to prices. And also, we saw stronger local currencies in Peru and Brazil and next inflation in Argentina. I would say all those effects are closely tied to the stronger gold and silver prices. In terms of administrative expenses, the increases is versus last year is mainly driven also by the performance of the company prices impacting LV, but also works profit sharing and bonus provision. In others, we reported a higher adjustment to our mine closure provisions of $6 million, and also the impact of higher prices on some items in other expenses, like the social contribution that we have in Argentina. Finally, the tax rate, effective tax rate was 35%, mainly including special mining taxes. and the FX appreciation in Brazil and Argentina, especially mining taxes and royalties are in Peru, sorry, and also the impact of FX movements in Brazil and Argentina. Excluding these FX, our effective tax rate would have been 32%. We didn't record any exceptional items in the first half of the year. If we can go to the next page, please, Charlie. Here we have the cash evolution, and I would just like to start saying that the free cash flow was very strong in the year and accounted for around $156 million in total. You can see that the cash that we were able to generate in Immaculada and San Jose, very strong, the first one at $288 million, the second one at $149 million. In Manarosa, we used $18 million to fully recover our capabilities and build a thickener and cut the thickener and open the pit. We invested $16 million in browser exploration. Our corporate origin was $30 million. In terms of tax pay, we paid $129 million, from which most of it is and went to Peru and Argentina. We reduced debt by $80 million. We paid $84 million in dividends, $26 million to Coxy shareholders and the rest, 58 to our joint venture partner in San Jose, Macuban Mining. We had a temporary working capital negative of $37 million. we executed our care and maintenance and mind closure budgets and invested $17 million and with a net interest of $8 million. In addition to those elements, we invested in Monte Locarno, $9 million to advance in our permitting process, sorry, in our engineering process, in Roropata, $6 million. In Acara, we made a capital contribution of $9 million in Q1. and we had other investments in $3 million, mainly at the expenses that our company invested in the projects. So with that, our ending balance of cash and short-term investments was $309 million. Again, a very strong free cash flow generation in the first half of the year. Despite having temporary movements, like the working capital, and also I didn't mention that in the tax line, around $80 million were taxes that belong to the previous year 2025 that were paid in March and in May, the regularization of 2025 taxes. If we can go to the next page, please, on cost drivers. The only sustaining cost of the whole operation was $2,448 per ounce. In Inmaculada, that cost was $1,953 per ounce, and that cost included the impact of the schedule lower rates, but also the impact of higher prices in worker profiteering and other items of that cost. We also had a stronger sold than local currency in Peru, which had an impact. And we had scheduled sustained capex increases, mainly to develop new areas and to execute our Infiltration Program. In San Jose, our only sustaining cost was 2,944. And that cost includes the impact of lower grades from the border areas that were mining and also the impact of higher prices in royalties and export tax. We also observed a local net inflation in Argentina. We were expecting more a devaluation but we saw in this first half a net inflation of around 7%. In the case of Mara Rosa, the only sustaining cost of $3,551 per ounce includes all the efforts and investment that we have made to successfully recover operational capabilities in the country. And also, in Mara Rosa, we also had the impact of the stronger VI versus the US dollar. I would like to highlight that the company has made a strong effort implementing a cost reduction and efficiency projects that has helped us mitigate the impact of general inflation in the mining industry associated to higher metal price. Again, a very good performance. And as Eduardo pointed out, just would like to reiterate that the adjustment that we have done to our, to our money sustaining cost guidance is mainly associated to higher prices and the direct impact in our oil spending costs and also the impact of stronger FX rates locally and net inflation in Argentina. All the rest of the inflationary pressure have been offset by our efficiency projects. You can go please to the following page on capital expenditures. We have maintained our guidance of between 210 and 225 million dollars for the year. In the first half, we invested 105 million dollars in sustaining CAPEX on a consolidated basis. In Inmaculada, we invested 69 million dollars, and this number mainly includes mine developments and projects like the expansion of the tailings dam where we invested 10 million dollars. We also executed our e-field breeding campaign and other support CAPEX. In the case of San Jose, our capex was $15 million, mainly related to mine development. And in the case of Mara Rosa, the $21 million invested in the first half is mainly associated to all the programs that we explained before to recover the mine operational capabilities. Mainly the thickener, but also the opening of the pit. On the following page, please, on the balance sheet, we have $309 million in cash and short-term investments, as stated before, and the cash generation of $156 million pre-cash flow is reflected in the transformation of our net debt position by the end of 2025 of $20 million to a net cash position of $51 million. The interest even went up 300% to 4 cents per share. And our net cash to last month EBITDA was minus, sorry, the net cash was 0.1 times, much below our target of between 0.5 times and 1.5 times net debt to EBITDA. in preparation for the investments we are scheduled to do in Monte do Carmo and Rolopato. Back to you Eduardo. Thank you very much. Charlie, we can go to page 11. Okay, just to remember what we defined two years ago, it was a strategy that to pursue the delivery and to reach the growth. Basically we defined four pillars. The first one was a brownfield to bring long-term value. Basically expanding our life of mines in each of the sites that we operate. Also to be focused on resources that would end up mineable It is important to bring mineable resources and also to continue expanding our land packages in all the countries that we operate to maximize the chances to bring new resources. On the operational excellence of course we have a lean philosophy across the company looking for cost efficiencies Also, we like to go by the book on the project development. That's why we are working on Monte O'Carmon at the moment. And of course, it's very important for us to be on the site and to have a leadership that is present, you know, with the people. On ESG, we need to continue focus on safety. Safety is the most important thing for us. but of course as you know water is something that is very delicate today in the world so we like to focus on water management as you know three years ago we implemented a new community approach especially in Peru and I mean the result has been that no blockages or whatsoever during the three years and, of course, Talent Management. And on the fourth pillar is the Discipline Capital Allocation, where we are looking to produce capital returns to our shareholders. But, of course, through our balance sheet, we need to fund in organic growth, so also to be able to pay debt. And of course, if we do any M&A, this M&A has to be value accretive. If we can go to the next page, please. Three years ago, also, we classified the assets on core assets and non-core assets. So, today, we are focused on our three core assets, which is Inmaculada, Mar-a-Rosa, and San Jose. We also focus on the projects that we have on the near term, Monte Ocarmo and Ruedo Pata. And also, we have been working very hard on getting value out of those non-core assets. And the best samples you have is the Tiernan Gold today, and Aclara has a value of $300 million, and Tres Patuca and Arcata was sold. If we go to the next stage please, as Eduardo Noriega mentioned, we need to be very focused on cost and looking for efficiencies. Today we have more than 50 initiatives in place to be able to control or to offset the inflation that we are living in the mining industry. And that inflation has been able to set off with these initiatives. So the only reason why we have reviewed the new guidance, cost new guidance, is because we have the effects and also the price related costs. In this page you can see different top initiatives that they have been implementing. in each site. We believe that we will be able to achieve the guidance in terms of cost and also in terms of production applying these programs. Going to Macudada on page 14, please, Charlie. Well, Macudada, as you know, is our flagship operation. The guidance for 2026 is between 174,000 to 185,000 ounces of gold. We are in that path to be able to achieve these results. Sadly, I have to say that we have a contractual fatality in June, but we have done an extensive investigation on what happened and apply all the lessons learned from this situation. Also, I would like to mention that, as you can see, the production profile, it goes a bit down, yeah, but I have to say that this is the, I mean, the results of having higher prices that lets you pass through the flood lower grades if we go to the page 15 Immaculada has been a fantastic story we started Immaculada back in 2015 and if you remember we used to have 1 million ounces of gold equivalent it was 80 million ounces of silver equivalent In the last 10 years, we have been able to discover 80 veins and bring a total resource of 5.2 million ounces of gold. What is next in Inmaculada? Well, in Inmaculada, we are trying to do exploration at the south of the deposit. That is something that we haven't tested yet. also Minas Cucho we just got the permit and we are waiting for social permitting that's at the northwest of the of the deposit we have found at Eduardo Bell some new pains that could be a potential resources in the next years and also we believe that we will be able to bring around 250 000 ounces this year for equal resources But as you can see, I mean, this year our focus is to try to bring potential resources, potential new areas to be able to expand again the resource at Inmaculada. Going to page 16, we have Ruedo Pata project. We have a great, a great new here. and is that we have been able to file the environmental permit with the new Peruvian government. Also, as you know, I mean, we have been able to build this document. We have worked with specialist consultants. We closed our agreements with the communities back in 2024. and today we believe that we have a year of revision and we could be seeing the permit granted next year around August. That's the plan. I mean, the thing about the Rolopata is that we have 3.3 million ounces of carbon equivalent. As you can see, is 412 grams of silver and 1.5 grams of gold and the average width of the deposit is 30 meters. Also you know that we have a plan of 3,000 tons ready to receive this material at our Selene plant that is in current maintenance since 2023. So we believe that we have a huge value to bring to the company developing this new project And also, if we can go to the next page, you can see that we brought a lot of resources from 2007 to 2025. But between 2027 and 2030, we believe that we can look for new resources to extend Marco Bain Good news for the company is that we just got the semi-detailed permit that let us drill from 40 platforms and we are going to target the extension of Pallancarta Bay and also the new areas that we believe that we can bring new resources. So I believe that in a couple of years We can have a new fantastic asset, you know, that will complement the production in Peru with at least 100,000 ounces per year. If we go to page 18, you can see our lab package between Inmaculada, Payacata, and Selene. It's 152,000 hectares. It's a huge lab package. we have been able to add 6 million ounces of gold equivalent to date and we are using the most advanced exploration tools that are available in the market the latest thing that we are doing is microgravity survey and we are testing current veins with these models and we believe that there is a very good correlation so between this microgravity and also the long-haul drilling we believe that we have the tools you know to explore all this area and continue bringing resources to our plants at Immaculada Acidic. Okay going to page 19 we fly to Brazil to Mara Rosa as you know it was an asset that we acquired in Brazil our first asset during 2025 and 2026 we have been working on a reorganization and finally we have finished that we have solved all the filtering issues we have a new contractor in place and our guidance we keep our guidance for 2026 between 67,000 and 80,000 ounces. If we go to the next page, I believe that the most interesting thing is the graph at the bottom of the page, the run rate performance. And as you can see in August, we have the crushing, milling and filtering plants nearly to our nameplate capacity. Good news is that we were able to implement the that now is fully commissioned and working in record time, in three months. And the most important thing is that today we come with a very competent mining constructor, and we are doing many, many improvements at the mine. So I believe that the second half of Mararosa is going to be very good for the company. I mean, we have finished all this work. If you can go to page 21, Charlie, please, you can see the open pit there. You can see the filters. You can see the dry stack on the right upper corner of the page. That is, I mean, state of the art. in terms of stability and everything. The thickener in place, you see the ore stockpile full of ore, and also the filtering plant with their ceilings ready for, I mean, with the roofs ready for the rainy season. If we go to page 22, we can see the Mara Rosa near mine program to add new resources. As you know, I mean, the place where POSE, which is Mara Rosa, is placed is an origenic trend that extends for 20 kilometers. And we have many mining concessions along this trend. Currently, we are evaluating a structural corridor three extractors, POSE, Araras and Esteti. We believe that we have promising results from drilling at the north of POSE. I mean, the idea is to continue bringing, as we established in our strategy, is continue bringing new resources to current assets. If we can go to page 23, We can see Montevocarmo. Montevocarmo is our new project in Brazil that we acquired in 2024 for $16 million. It's a million ounces of coal. It's located in a very mining-friendly Tocantins state, which is north of Goiás. I mean, this project is fully permitted, and I have to say that it has an excellent infrastructure in terms of paved highways, hydropower plants, airports, cities, big cities that I'm sure you will attract very good talent once we start the operation. Today we are working on waste rock facilities and pre-stripping engineering and going to detail engineering. The plan engineering done by AUSENCO is nearly finished. Of course, we continue doing some pipe drilling And of course, we have been able to talk to suppliers in order to talking about the orders for milling, crushing, power lines and filtration to make sure that the lead times of those equipments are ready for us. We expect to present to the market and update the economic and go to our board of directors for FID at the end of this year. and I mean, at that point, we will have finished 100% of our basic engineering and through H1 2027, we will go, I mean, to perform the detail engineering of all the components. Basically, once you have a basic engineering, you can apply a fast track construction strategy Developing detail engineering during construction. That's the idea. But I mean, I believe that the first thing is to make sure that based on basic engineering, we have a very strong project, even at very conservative prices. That also is established in our strategy to make sure that any M&A has to be value accretive. I'm going to San Jose. San Jose is doing very well in terms of production. Unfortunately, I mean, inflation has went down in Argentina. Today, we have up to 16%, but unfortunately, we didn't have any valuation. So, I mean, cost is increasing, and it's incredible how many fishing projects we have done in order to control those costs. But I mean, 60% of cost increases is a lot. So, I mean, we believe that we will be able to finish the year inside the new ranges that we have presented to the market. And of course, be able to accomplish with our guidance. In terms of exploration, if we can go to page 25, I mean, we believe that San Jose still has a lot of potential in terms of new resources. In 2026, we have been drilling in Los Verdes West, in Ayelen and Maura. we are also using microgravity to pay that has been complete 70% in areas that we believe that it could have new resources and of course also we are working at the San Jose province where we have some mining properties and we believe that we can bring more value to the company okay changing the subject if we go to page 26 I believe that we need to talk the new Peruvian government. As you know, we have elections on July 28th, and Keiko Fujimori was appointed as the new president in Peru. I have to say that a new cabinet has been appointed, and I would say that it's technical and investment friendly. At the inaugural address, it was centered basically on restoring stability, confidence, and growth. We believe that these early moves that give us signals of continuity and pragmatic market-oriented tone. On the economic team, we are very happy because Julio Velarde has been reappointed to the central bank. You know that the Peruvian soul has been the most established effects in Latin America. And this Julio Velarde, he will continue as the governor of the central bank, has decided to extend his leadership until 2031. Also, as a Ministry of Economy, Elmer Cuba has been appointed. And he is a macroeconomist, very well regulated, respected macroeconomist, and also former Central Bank Director. We expect to have a growth of 3.5% GDP in 2026. At the Mining and Energy Minister, Guillermo Chino has been appointed as a minister. He used to be Vice Minister of Mines. And he's a person that has a lot of experience on the private sector also. And I believe that the Fujimori's platform for our sector is trying to formalize mining, tackle illegal mining, and also simplify permitting. So I believe that why it's important this news for investors is because we have an improvement sentiment with renewed expectations to have faster permitting and I'm sure that the country is going to be attracting new investments. And so, I mean, I know that permitting remains challenging overall because, I mean, we need to have, I mean, we need to implement a lot of changes on regulations that the Fujimori government has presented. But I mean, of course, we have the Royal Pata permit now with this government, and I believe that that's very good news for the company. I insist that Royal Pata, it could be the new flagship of Holdfield Mining, and we need to continue developing this project. If we go to page 27, again, I mean, this slide is always on our presentation, and it's that we believe that we have a valuation opportunity. Now, we have Manarosa that I believe that on H2 is going to perform. Immaculada continues having a very strong performance. And today, Rolopata, we have already presented the permit. and Monte del Carmo we believe that at the end of the year we are going to be able to present the FID so with all this news if we compare ourselves with our peers we have still a very low value so that's an opportunity to buy our share and the expectation is that the value is going to grow in the future If we go into page 27 as a conclusion, well, 2026 H1 has been, as we said, a record performance in terms of financial. I'm extremely happy with the execution that we have been able to implement at Mara Rosa in its turnaround. We have very strong Peruvian and Argentinian cash flows. the dividend is going to be 21 million dollars and also as we established in our strategy Tieron and Aclarix investments now are valued at more than 300 million dollars I mean what is coming is a Monte Ocarno project advancing with FIG at a size plane We believe that our program will deliver new additional ounces. Royal Fata project will deliver more than 100,000 ounces gold equivalent starting production in 2028. And of course, we will be keeping our discipline capital allocation strategy to make sure that we pay that Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you. Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question over the phone, please signal by pressing star 1.

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