Compania de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A.
Compañía de Minas Buenaventura is Peru's largest publicly traded precious and base metals miner. Silver is now its leading metal by revenue: at 2025 sales volumes and average realized prices, silver made up 36.7% of metal sales, copper 34.5% and gold 22.7%, and silver's lead widened to 49.6% in the first half of 2026. It wholly owns and operates the Uchucchacua/Yumpag silver mine, its largest single source of silver, and the San Gabriel gold mine, now ramping up. It also operates El Brocal (61.43%; copper, zinc, lead and silver), the Coimolache gold-silver mine (40.094%) and Julcani, owns the Trapiche copper project, and holds 19.58% of Cerro Verde, the copper mine operated by Freeport-McMoRan. As at 31 December 2025 its attributable Measured and Indicated resources, inclusive of reserves, contain 142,670,000 oz of silver at Uchucchacua/Yumpag and El Brocal's zinc-lead-silver zone, where silver is the main metal; counting by-product silver at its other mines, the total is 340.7 Moz.
Lifecycle Milestones
Construction Milestones
5 of 5 reached- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
Milestones are recorded only from a company's own dated disclosure. A milestone with no date shown is one we can confirm was reached but for which no date was disclosed — we don't estimate one. "Not yet reached" means exactly that, not that a date is missing. An "Expected" line likewise only ever reflects the company's own guidance (e.g. a study or permit decision targeted for a stated quarter) — most not-yet-reached milestones have none, and that absence means no such guidance has been disclosed, not that one is overdue.
Not yet determined: road access.
Not in place: mill, tailings facility. Not yet determined: road access, grid power.
Not in place: mill, tailings facility, road access. Not yet determined: grid power.
Combined view across 7 projects. Figures below are only combined where the underlying basis genuinely matches -- see the notes under each.
- 15.9%Trapiche Project, Antabamba, Apurimac, Peru
- 7 yrsUchucchacua/Yumpag, Oyon and Daniel Alcides Carrion, Peru
- 17 yrsEl Brocal (Colquijirca-Marcapunta), Cerro de Pasco, Peru
- 14.6 yrsSan Gabriel Project
- 28 yrsCerro Verde Mine, Arequipa, Peru
- 4 yrsCoimolache (Tantahuatay oxide mine), Hualgayoc, Cajamarca, Peru
- 18 yrsTrapiche Project, Antabamba, Apurimac, Peru
Shown as separate totals, not summed together: these projects' studies used different discount rates, so a single combined NPV would not be a real number.
Jurisdiction (40%)6/10
Peru carries real above-ground risk for miners (community relations, permitting delays, historical political volatility) balanced against decades of established large-scale mining. Moderate-tier score, not top-tier like Nevada/Ontario.
Infrastructure (40%)10/10
A confirmed mill, confirmed road access, confirmed grid power, and a confirmed tailings facility at Uchucchacua/Yumpag, Oyon and Daniel Alcides Carrion, Peru.
Nearby producing mine (20%)10/10
Iscaycruz (Glencore plc) is 19 km away -- within shared-mill trucking range.
Acquisition Susceptibility
A relative ranking of how closely this company matches the profile of juniors that have actually been acquired — not a probability, and not a reason to buy. Acquisitions are rare: only a few dozen significant deals happen a year across a universe of thousands of juniors, so even a high score here describes a long shot. The strongest signal in the research, a producer that already owns part of the company, is scored from its disclosed strategic shareholders. A producer that is a joint-venture or earn-in partner on the project, rather than a shareholder, isn't captured yet.
How this score is built
- Disclosed pending dealSub-score: Not scored
No pending acquisition or merger disclosed (checked)
Not scored: having no deal in flight isn't held against a company.
Weight 26.25% - Producer's strategic stakeSub-score: Not yet researched
Holder register not researched yet
Not scored: most juniors that do get bought had no prior toehold, so a missing stake says little either way.
Weight 25% - Distance to a producing mineSub-score:8.1/10
Nearest producing mine: Iscaycruz (Glencore plc), 19 km
10 next to a producing mine, 8 at 20 km, 5 at 50 km, 0 beyond 200 km.
Weight 22.5% · 46% here - Lifecycle stageSub-score:5.5/10
Stage: Production
Feasibility and permitting score 10, where deals cluster, and production 5.5; earlier stages score less, down to 1 at grassroots.
Weight 15% · 31% here - JurisdictionSub-score:6/10
Peru: jurisdiction score 6/10
Our jurisdiction score, used as is: higher means lower political and permitting risk.
Weight 6.75% · 14% here - CommoditySub-score:5/10
Primary commodity: Silver
Gold 10, copper 8, silver 5, nickel and uranium 4, others 2: most majors' deals are for gold.
Weight 4.5% · 9% here
Weight is each input's share of the full score. “Here” is its share of this company's score: inputs that aren't scored are left out and the rest re-weighted, never counted as zero.
Your Rankings
Management Team
Chief Executive Officer of Compania de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. since 1 Sep 2020 (Chief Financial Officer Dec 2017-Sep 2020; Controller General Jul 2011-Dec 2017). Earlier career: Treasury Head at Buenaventura (1990-1997) and Finance Manager at Sociedad Minera El Brocal (to 2000), then a decade in pharmacy retail as General Manager of Boticas BTL (to 2005) and of Boticas Inkafarma, Peru's largest pharmacy chain (2005-Jun 2011). Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Accounting, Universidad del Pacifico; MBA, University of Miami.
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Compania de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. since 2020, having joined the company 25 years ago. Held Supply Chain Manager (2017-2020) and Director of Treasury and Financial Planning / Investor Relations Officer / Financial Manager (2003-2017) roles internally. Bachelor's degree in Economics, Universidad del Pacifico; MBA, Universidad del Pacifico; Harvard Business School General Management Program (2015); London Business School Corporate Finance Program (2010).
Chairman of the Board of Compania de Minas Buenaventura S.A.A. since 2011, after serving as its Chief Executive Officer (2001-2011) and, from 1985, Chief Financial Officer; he has worked at Buenaventura, founded by his father Alberto Benavides de la Quintana, since 1977. Former President of the Sociedad Nacional de Mineria Petroleo y Energia (SNMPE) and of CONFIEP (through Feb 2019); director of Sociedad Minera El Brocal, Credit Bank of Peru and Union Andina de Cementos. Civil Engineering degree, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru; MBA, Henley Business School, University of Reading; Harvard Business School Management Development Program; Oxford Advanced Management Program.
Insiders, Investors & Smart Money
Notable shareholders and insiders whose involvement is worth knowing about, plus what we're seeing from institutional/large-investor activity.
Not scored. Smart-money tracking covers companies below about US$5B in market cap, where a single specialist fund or strategic investor taking a stake is a meaningful signal. This company was above that size when it was assessed.
No notable insiders tracked for this miner yet.
Reports, Presentations & Documents
Buenaventura's primary metal is silver. Its 2025 Form 20-F gives 142,670,000 oz of attributable silver in Measured and Indicated resources inclusive of reserves (Measured 28,460,000 oz, Indicated 114,210,000 oz; Inferred 95,170,000 oz) as at 31 December 2025, at Uchucchacua/Yumpag and El Brocal's zinc-lead-silver zone; by-product silver at its copper and gold mines is left out (340.7 Moz including it). Its portfolio includes the 100%-owned Uchucchacua/Yumpag silver mine, 61.43% of El Brocal, 40.094% of Coimolache, 19.58% of Cerro Verde (operated by Freeport-McMoRan) and the San Gabriel gold project, now ramping up. San Gabriel's April 2025 technical report gives an after-tax NPV of about US$191M (US$388M pre-tax) at an 8.26% discount rate and a 14.6-year mine life; Buenaventura does not publish a company-wide NPV.