Southern Copper CorporationS
Southern Copper Corporation is one of the world's largest integrated copper producers by reserves, ~88.9%-owned by Mexican conglomerate Grupo Mexico. Its Peruvian operations trace to Southern Peru Copper Corporation, founded 1952: Toquepala (development began 1956, first production 1960, an open-pit mine with its own smelter and the Ilo industrial port) and Cuajone (developed through the 1970s). Its Mexican operations, held via Minera Mexico/Grupo Mexico, comprise La Caridad (Nacozari, Sonora) and Buenavista del Cobre (the renamed former Cananea mine, restarted under that name to mark a new development phase for the asset). Beyond copper, Southern Copper produces byproduct molybdenum, zinc and silver. The company also operates its own smelting/refining infrastructure in both countries rather than solely selling concentrate, giving it integrated exposure across the copper value chain.
Notable vs. Peers
- Jurisdiction risk score of 6/10 is meaningfully riskier than the peer average of 7.7/10.
Lifecycle Milestones
Construction Milestones
5 of 5 reached- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
- Jan 1960 · 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.
Jurisdiction (40%)6/10
Southern Copper's flagship is the Buenavista del Cobre mine at Cananea, Sonora, Mexico. Mexican mining carries real regulatory and community-relations risk, which has periodically affected Buenavista and Cananea; scored 6 like most Sonora companies on this site. Southern Copper also operates La Caridad in Mexico and Toquepala and Cuajone in Peru, where community blockades have historically disrupted Cuajone access. It is incorporated in Delaware, listed in New York and headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
Infrastructure (40%)10/10
A confirmed mill, confirmed road access, confirmed grid power, and a confirmed tailings facility at Buenavista del Cobre.
Nearby producing mine (20%)10/10
Milpillas (Industrias Penoles, S.A.B. de C.V.) is 20 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 scored
Grupo Mexico, S.A.B. de C.V. holds 88.9% (reported 30 Jun 2026) See holders
Already majority-controlled, so a sale is its controlling holder's decision; the toehold-then-takeout pattern this input measures doesn't apply.
Weight 25% - Distance to a producing mineSub-score:8/10
Nearest producing mine: Milpillas (Industrias Penoles, S.A.B. de C.V.), 20 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
Mexico: jurisdiction score 6/10
Our jurisdiction score, used as is: higher means lower political and permitting risk.
Weight 6.75% · 14% here - CommoditySub-score:8/10
Primary commodity: Copper
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
President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Southern Copper Corporation, appointed by the Board effective 23 April 2026 following the unexpected passing of Oscar Gonzalez Rocha. Joined Americas Mining Corporation (AMC, the company's controlling shareholder) in Sep 2018, rising through President of ASARCO (2019), Director for Commercial and Supply Chain of AMC (2019), President of IMMSA (2020), CFO of AMC (2022), and General Director of Americas (2024). Before AMC, founded and ran Murano Capital, a private investment vehicle, from Sep 2015; before that, spent almost five years at Nexxus Capital in private and public equity and debt transactions. BS in Industrial Engineering (Universidad Anahuac), MBA (University of Chicago Booth). Son-in-law of German Larrea Mota-Velasco.
Chairman of the Board of Southern Copper Corporation since 1999. Also chairman of Grupo Mexico, S.A.B. de C.V. (via its Americas Mining Corporation subsidiary, Southern Copper's controlling ~88.9% shareholder).
Ranked by Institutional Investor as the top Chief Financial Officer in the Latin America mining industry (2021) and among the top three CFOs in Latin America four times (2014-2020). Served as President of the Peruvian National Mining, Oil and Energy Association (Jan 2021-Jan 2023), a trade-association office rather than a company role. Economics degree, Universidad del Pacifico; Master's, University of Texas at Austin; International Business Management degree, Stockholm School of Economics.
Insiders, Investors & Smart Money
Notable shareholders and insiders whose involvement is worth knowing about, plus what we're seeing from institutional/large-investor activity.
No smart-money tracking (institutional/large-investor activity) for this miner yet — this is a planned feature, not live data.
No notable insiders tracked for this miner yet.
Reports, Presentations & Documents
Southern Copper operates four main mines in Peru (Toquepala, Cuajone) and Mexico (Buenavista, La Caridad) and does not publish a single company-level NPV, IRR or mine life. Its FY2025 10-K reports resources exclusive of reserves: 108,955.5 million lb of copper in proven and probable reserves plus 32,632.0 million lb of additional measured and indicated resources, 141,587.5 million lb in total. A further 144,650.1 million lb is inferred and is not counted in that total.