Hochschild Mining plc

Hochschild Mining plc

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Q2 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptAugust 26, 2026

Operator

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 one 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.

Operator

Eduardo Landin

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. Well, first, let me say that we have, on H1, the strongest ever half-year financials.

We have produced 150,000 oz, a little bit more. Revenues went up 62%, up to $844 million.

Our adjusted EBITDA went up 119% to $492 million. The EPS went up 208% to $0.37.

Our attributable all-in sustaining cash cost was $2,448 per ounce gold equivalent. We end up with $309 million in cash, and our net cash position is of $51 million.

The dividend that we have established following our policy is $0.04, equivalent to $21 million. What do we have to do with the rest of the second half?

Mara Rosa reorganization is on track. We will talk about during this presentation.

Royropata, 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 strong ESG metrics, and we have also reviewed our all-in sustaining cash costs for the end of the year, and the new range is between $2,380-$2,500 per ounce. 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 profit sharing and royalties, for example.

The guidance, in terms of production, stay as it was defined at the beginning of the year, and the all-in sustaining cash cost is the figures that I just gave it to you. I pass the presentation to Eduardo Noriega to go through the financial results.

Charlie, if you can go to page five, please. Go ahead, Eduardo.

Eduardo Landin

Eduardo Noriega

Thank you very much, Eduardo, and good morning. This strong set of financial results, as Eduardo described, as record half-year 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 offset by scheduled lower ounces 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, workers profit sharing, export tax in Argentina, and other items directly correlated to prices. We also saw stronger local currencies in Peru and Brazil, and net 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 versus last year is mainly driven also by the performance of the company prices impacting LTIP, but also workers profit sharing and bonus provisions.

In others, we recorded 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, effective tax rate was 35%, mainly including special mining taxes and the FX appreciation in Brazil and Argentina.

Special mining taxes and royalties are in Peru, sorry, and also the impact of FX movements in Brazil and Argentina. Excluding these effects, 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. 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 Inmaculada and San Jose, very strong. The first one at $288 million, the second one at $149 million.

In Mara Rosa, we used $80 million to fully recover our capabilities and build a thickener, install the thickener, and open the pit. We invested $16 million in brownfield exploration.

Our corporate overhead was $30 million. In terms of tax paid, we paid $129 million, from which most of it went to Peru and Argentina.

We reduced debt by $80 million. We paid $84 million in dividends, $26 million to Hochschild shareholders, and the rest, 58, to our joint venture partner in San Jose, McEwen Mining.

We had temporary movements in working capital, negative of $37 million. We executed our care and maintenance and mine closure budgets, and invested $17 million.

We paid net interest of $8 million. In addition to those elements, we invested in Monte do Carmo, $9 million, to advancing in our permitting process in Ro-- Sorry, in our engineering process.

In Royropata, $6 million. In Aclara, we made a capital contribution, $9 million in Q1.

We had other investments in $3 million, mainly the expenses that the Tiernan Gold company invested in the whole current project. 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, I did not mention, but in the tax line, around $80 million were taxes that belong to the previous year, 2025, that were paid in March and in May.

That regularization of 2025 taxes. If we can go to the next page, please, on cost drivers.

The all-in sustaining costs at the whole operation was $2,448 per ounce. In Inmaculada, that cost was $1,953 per ounce.

That cost included the impact of the scheduled lower grades, but also the impact of higher prices in worker profit-sharing and other items of that cost. We also had a stronger sol, the local currency in Peru, which had an impact.

We had scheduled sustained CapEx increases, mainly to develop new areas and to execute our infill drilling program. In San Jose, our all-in sustaining cost was $2,944.

That cost includes the impact of lower grades from the border areas that we are 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 all-in sustaining cost of $3,551 per ounce includes all the efforts and investment that we have made to successfully recover operational capabilities in that country.

In Mara Rosa, we also had the impact of the stronger real 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 prices.

Again, a very good performance. As Eduardo pointed out, just would like to reiterate that the adjustment that we have done to our all-in sustaining cost guidance is mainly associated to higher prices and its direct impact in our all-in sustaining cost, 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. If we can go, please, to the following page on capital expenditures.

We have maintained our guidance of between $210 million and $225 million for the year. In the first half, we invested $105 million in sustaining CapEx on a consolidated basis.

In Inmaculada, we invested $69 million, and this number mainly include mine developments and projects like the expansion of the tailings dam, where we invested $10 million. We also executed our infill drilling campaign and other support CapEx.

In the case of San Jose, our CapEx was $15 million, mainly related to mine developments. In the case of Mara Rosa, the $21 million invested in the first half is mainly associated to all the program 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 had $309 million in cash and short-term investments, as stated before. The cash generation of $156 million free 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 interim dividend went up 300% to $0.04 per share. Our net cash to last 12 months, 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 Royropata.

Thank you very much. Charlie, we can go to page 11.

Just to remember what we defined three years ago, it was a strategy that pursued the delivery and to reach the growth. Basically, we defined four pillars.

The first one was 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.

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 is why we are working on Monte do Carmo at the moment.

Of course, it is very important for us to be on the sites and to have a leadership that is present with the people. On ESG, we need to continue focus on safety.

Safety is the most important thing for us. 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. The result has been that no blockages whatsoever during the three years.

Of course, talent management. On the fourth pillar is the discipline capital allocation, where we are looking to produce capital returns to our shareholders.

Of course, through our balance sheet, we need to fund organic growth. Also, to be able to pay debt.

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, Mara Rosa, and San Jose.

We also focus on the projects that we have on the near term, Monte do Carmo, Royropata. Also, we have been working very hard on getting value out of those non-core assets.

The best samples you have is that Tiernan Gold today, Aclara has a value of $300 million. Crespo, Azuca, and Arcata was sold.

If we go to the next page, 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. 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 cost.

Eduardo Noriega

Eduardo Landin

In this page, you can see different top initiatives that 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 Inmaculada, on page 14, please, Charles. Inmaculada, 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 contractor fatality in June, but we have done an extensive investigation on what happened and apply all the lesson learned from this situation. Also, I would like to mention that as you can see, the production profile it goes a bit down.

I have to say that this is the result of having higher prices that it lets you pass through the plant at lower grades. If we go to page 15.

Inmaculada has been a fantastic story. We start Inmaculada 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, Inmaculada, we are trying to do exploration at the south of the deposit.

That is something that we haven't test yet. Also, Minas Cucho, we just got the permit, and we are waiting for social permitting.

That's at the northwest of the deposit. We have found at Eduardo Belt some new veins that could be potential resources in the next years.

Also, we believe that we will be able to bring around 250,000 ounces this year on inferred resources. But as you can see, 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 Royropata project. We have a great news here, and is that we have been able to file the environmental permit with the new Peruvian government.

Also, as you know, 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. The thing about Royropata is that we have 3.3 million ounces of gold equivalent.

As you can see, the grades 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 plan, that is in care and maintenance since 2023.

So we believe that we have a huge value to bring to the company, developing this new project. 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 vein. Good news for the company is that we just got the semi-detailed permit that let us drill from 40 platforms.

We are going to target the extension of Pallancata vein and also the new areas that we believe that we can bring new resources. I believe that in a couple of years, we can have a new fantastic asset 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 land package between Inmaculada, Pallancata, and Selene. It's 152,000 hectares.

It's a huge land package. We have been able to add 6 million ounces of gold equivalent to date.

We are using the most advanced exploration tools that are available in the market. The latest thing that we are doing is micro gravity survey.

We are testing current veins with these models, and we believe that there is a very good correlation. So between this micro gravity and also the long hole drilling, we believe that we have the tools to explore all this area and continue bringing resources to our plants at Inmaculada and Selene.

Okay. Going to page 19, we fly to Brazil, to Mara Rosa.

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.

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.

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 thickener that now is fully commissioned and working in record time, in 3 months.

The most important thing is that today we count with a very competent mining contractor. We are doing many improvements at the mine.

I believe that the second half of Mara Rosa is going to be very good for the company. 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 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 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, the place where Poce, which is Mara Rosa, is placed is an orogenic trend that extends for 20 kilometers. We have many mining concessions along this trend.

Currently, we are evaluating a structural corridor with three structures: Poce, Araras, and Speti. We believe that we have promising results from drilling at the north of Poce.

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 Monte do Carmo.

Monte do Carmo is our new project in Brazil that we acquired in 2024 for $60 million. It is 1 million ounces of gold.

It is located in a very mining-friendly Tocantins state, which is north of Goiás. This project is fully permitted, and I have to say that it has an excellent infrastructure in terms of paved highways, hydropower plants, airports, big cities, that I am sure you will attract very good talent once we start the operation.

Today, we are working on waste rock facilities and pre-strip engineering, going to detailed engineering. The plant engineering done by Ausenco is nearly finished.

Of course, we continue doing some pile drilling. 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 an updated economic and go to our board of directors for FID at the end of the year. At that point, we will have finished 100% of our basic engineering.

Through H1 2027, we will go to perform the design engineering of all the components. Basically, once you have basic engineering, you can apply a fast-track construction strategy, developing detailed engineering during construction.

That is the idea. 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 on our strategy to make sure that any M&A has to be value accretive. Going to San José, San José is doing very well in terms of production.

Inflation has went down in Argentina. Today, we have up to 16%, but unfortunately, we did not have any devaluation.

So cost is increasing, and it is incredible how many efficiency projects we have done in order to control those costs. But 16% of cost increase is a lot.

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, we believe that San José still has a lot of potential in terms of new resources.

In 2026, we have been drilling in Huevos Verdes West, in Ayelén and Maura. We are also using microgravity survey that has been complete 70% in areas that we believe that it could have new resources.

Of course, also, we are working at the Santa Cruz 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 a new president in Peru. I have to say that a new cabinet has been appointed, and I would say that it is technical and investment friendly.

At the inaugural address, it was centered basically on restoring stability, confidence, and growth. We believe that these early moves give us signals of continuity and pragmatic market-orientated tone.

On the economic team, we are very happy because Julio Velarde has been reappointed to the Central Bank. You know that the Peruvian sol has been the most established effects in Latin America.

Julio Velarde, which he will continue as a governor of the Central Bank, has decided to extend his leadership until 2031. Also, as a Minister of Economy, Elmer Cuba has been appointed.

He is a macroeconomist, very well-reputed, 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 Shinno has been appointed as a minister. He used to be Vice Minister of Mines, and he is a person that has a lot of experience on the private sector also.

I believe that the Fujimori's platform for our sector is try to formalize mining, tackle illegal mining, and also simplify permitting. I believe that why it is important, this news, for investors is because we have an improvement sentiment with the renewed expectations or to have faster permitting, and I am sure that the country is going to be attracting new investments.

I know that permitting remains challenging overall because we need to implement a lot of changes on regulations that the Fujimori's government has presented. Of course, we have the Royropata permit now with this government, and I believe that is very good news for the company.

I insist that Royropata, it could be the new flagship of Hochschild Mining, and we need to continue developing this project. If we go to page 27, again, this slide is always on our presentation, and it is that we believe that we have a valuation opportunity.

Now we have Mara Rosa that I believe that on H2 is going to perform. Inmaculada continue having a very strong performance, and today, Royropata, we have already presented the permit, and Monte do Carmo, we believe that at the end of the year, we are going to be able to present the FID.

With all this news, if we compare ourselves with our peers, we have still a very low value. That is 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 am 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.

Also, as we established in our strategy, Tiernan Gold and Aclara investments now are valued at more than $300 million. What is coming is Monte do Carmo project advancing with FID, as I explained.

We believe that our brownfield program will deliver new additional ounces. Royropata project to deliver more than 100,000 ounces gold equivalent, starting production in 2028.

And of course, we will be keeping our disciplined capital allocation strategy to make sure that we pay debt, that we have the cash to continue investment, and for sure to give returns to our shareholders. With this, I have finished the presentation.

Of course, please, I would like to open the Q&A session. Thank you so much for being here today.

Eduardo Landin

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question over the phone, please signal by pressing star one.

If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. Please make sure the mute function on your phone is switched off to allow your signal to reach our equipment.

Again, please press star one to ask a question. Our first question is from Richard Hatch from Berenberg.

Please go ahead.

Operator

Richard Hatch

Hi, thanks. Thanks for the time, your call.

I have just got three financial questions for Eduardo, please. The first one is just, Eduardo, on the administrative costs they picked up because of bonus provisions, what should we expect those costs to rise at as we go into the second half of the year?

That is the first one. Second one is just on the working capital.

So you built working capital over H1 to the tune of about $45 million. I just wonder if you can help us how we should think about working capital in H2.

Then thirdly, just on cash tax, what kind of cash tax number should we be modeling for H2 2026? Thanks very much.

Richard Hatch

Eduardo Noriega

Thank you, Richard. On admin expenses, I would expect a similar amount for the second half.

I would say that the most important impact here is workers' profit sharing. You know that in Peru, around 8% of the profit before income tax is shared among employees.

So that has a direct impact on admin expenses. The rest of the items should be pretty much similar to what we saw in H1 this year.

In terms of working capital, certainly towards the end of the year, we typically see an improvement on working capital. You see that we had a negative movement of $37 million in the slide that I presented.

So I think that amount should be offset in the second half of the year. Finally, I could not hear you very well on the tax.

I will tell you that the tax payments that we had in the first half were $129 million. From this $129 million, part of it, around $70 million, were regularization of 2025 taxes executed in March and May this year.

So it is included in here. For the second half, we may see, excluding those $70 million, we should see a similar amount, probably a little bit higher because there are more prepayments that are made in the second half versus the first half.

So pretty much a similar number, a little bit higher, excluding the $70 million that I pointed out.

Eduardo Noriega

Richard Hatch

Cool. Brilliant.

Thanks, Eduardo.

Richard Hatch

Eduardo Noriega

Thank you, Richard.

Eduardo Noriega

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question over the phone, please signal by pressing star one.

You may also submit your written questions over the webcast. We will pause for just a moment to allow you to signal.

Maybe there is currently an Oh, pardon. We have a question from Ian Rossouw from Barclays.

Please go ahead.

Operator

Ian Rossouw

Hi, team. Yeah, a few questions from me.

Can you guys hear me? Very well.

Yes. Thank you, Ian.

Perfect. Yeah, just firstly on the dividend, obviously, you said you paid the dividend in line with your policy, but if I look at your apply the policy that you, I guess, showed the reconciliation of at the full year results.

If I apply that to H1 numbers, I get a dividend per share significantly higher than what you declared. So how should I think about the interim dividend?

It does not seem like you exactly applied your policy for that versus, I guess, what you did for the full year. The second question just on Monte do Carmo.

It seems like there has obviously been a bit of a delay in the timeline for the FID over the last couple of years, I guess more than a 12-month delay, but you have never really changed the first production timelines. Eduardo, you just mentioned, I guess, perhaps fast-tracking construction, but how should we think about that and the risks of that first production figure?

I guess if you are only doing detailed engineering later than previous plan, does that sort of introduce additional risks for the project and for the scope and timelines, et cetera?

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Landin

Okay. Well, basically, what we need to build Monte do Carmo, I believe that is between 18 months and 24 months.

Yeah? Okay.

So, once you have basic engineering, you can go and hire contractors. That is the strategy that I used back in 2015 at Inmaculada.

I did it with 60% basic engineering. In this case, I am going to have 100% basic engineering.

Of course, we can fast-track all the civil detail engineering. Also, I have said that we are talking with the suppliers of the main equipment, also to make sure that the lead times are in line with our expectation.

So I believe that, taking into account all these numbers and all this data, we could be able to start production at the end of 2028. Okay.That is the situation.

Eduardo Landin

Eduardo Noriega

Thank you, Eduardo. Let me address Ian's questions on dividend.

Thank you for reading that question, Ian. So our policy is an annual policy.

We say that we are going to distribute between 20% and 30% of the attributable free cash flow. So basically, you need to deduct the non-attributable portion of the free cash flow of Argentina, basically.

In summary, that is what this is about. When looking at the interim dividend, what you should do is we are not expecting to pay to apply that same policy to the first half.

We are actually looking at the overall, the entire year, modeling four different scenarios on prices. You know prices could stay, could go up, could go down.

Who knows? So we save some room for that situation.

So that is how we discuss the H1 numbers and, of course, we listen to the market and see where we are and try to meet both objectives. The first but more important one is follow the policy, the annual policy, and the second one is pay a dividend that would protect us from an expected situation in the second half.

But we do not apply the policy to the first half. A smaller proportion of the full dividend expected is paid as interim dividend.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Okay. All right.

Yeah, I guess it just creates some uncertainty about what people should forecast for the interim dividend. Understood.

Thank you. Then just coming back to the cost guidance.

Obviously, the costs have gone up quite materially, particularly at Mara Rosa, versus, I guess, previous expectations. You've already talked about pricing and FX having the biggest impact.

If we strip out these one-off impacts, prices, and FX, what should we think of Mara Rosa on a normalized basis once it reaches full production? I guess that's the first question.

Then secondly, just what are you assuming for prices and FX in the updated guidance for the rest of the year?

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

Thank you, Ian. The revised all-in sustaining cost, as I said, includes the higher prices and FX/local inflation.

From the increase, around 60% has to do with higher prices at a total level, and 40% has to do with FX/local inflation in Argentina.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Okay.

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

As you will see, our guidance for the year in Mara Rosa is lower than what we had in H1. Our H1 number, as I said, include around $90 million of CapEx that had to do with bringing Mara Rosa back into stable production, which we believe we have achieved by the end of June.

Of course, we're seeing that good performance in July and August. We don't provide a guidance for Mara Rosa in the long term because we are actually fine-tuning our efficiency measures, and the team is super focused on after recovery production, just make sure that we capture all the efficiencies that we can in Mara Rosa.

I would say, Ian, to let us wait until the guidance for the next year for you to have a better idea on what will be more the run rate of Mara Rosa. Certainly, by applying the full year guidance to your equation, you will see that the cost is improving materially in the second half, and we expect that to improve even more in the coming years.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Okay. All right.

Thanks. Maybe just on that sort of ramp-up and useful, I guess, that slide was quite useful in terms of the run rates over the months.

What is assumed for the rest of the year in terms of throughput? Are you assuming just the 6.3 thousand tons per day or 7,000 tons per day within that guidance?

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

Yeah. I would believe that we will be able to run rate at 7,000 tons per day at least.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Okay.

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

Yeah.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Is that-

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

That is the nominal tons.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

and is that range? Okay.

The range of the sort of bottom end of the top end of the production guidance, is that just flexing the throughput rates and grades? How should we think about that?

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

No. Really, the range is going to depend on the grades that we will be able to reach at the bottom of the pit.

But we want to make sure that we do it in a good manner to make sure that we do not take material from 2027. This is very important to keep up the planning that we have decided to have in place.

I believe that what we are trying to do is to be as close as possible to the upper end of the guidance.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Okay. All right.

I will leave it at that and pass on to the other people. Thank you.

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

Thank you so much.

Eduardo Noriega

Operator

Thank you. There are currently no further questions in the phone queue, but I would like to hand the call back over to Charles for any webcast questions.

Operator

Charlie Gordon

Hello. Thanks very much.

The first question is, what are the key changes that you have already seen and that you expect in the second half of the year with the new mining contractors at Mara Rosa? My second question is, are you optimistic about potential mine life extensions at San José?

What do you need to sustain mine operations for longer? Thanks.

Charlie Gordon

Eduardo Noriega

Well, the first question is that, I met personally Fagundes. That is their mining contractor.

I believe that we reached one of the best contractors in Brazil. They are extremely responsible and very focused on safety, which is very important for us.

The run rate for Fagundes, they have reached 70,000 tons per day, and I believe that they could reach like 75 up to 80,000 tons per day some days. We believe that we could recover part of the material that has not been reached during the first half.

I do not know if that answered the question, but I believe that we are in very good hands, I have to say. In terms of San José, San José has very strong mining properties.

You know that all the mining property between Cerro Negro and San José is a Hochschild property. We believe that with the new tools that we are using for exploration, we will be able to continue adding resources at San José.

Let us wait for the exploration results at the end of the year, but we have some promising results that they are published on the H1 report. Go ahead, Charlie, please.

Eduardo Noriega

Charlie Gordon

Thank you. Thank you very much.

The next one is, you mentioned submitting the environmental impact assessment to the government for Royropata. What are the next steps now, and when would you expect to begin operations?

Charlie Gordon

Eduardo Noriega

The environmental impact study approval has different steps and different phases during this year that we just started. The first step was to submit the whole document and upload it to the system, and that's something that was done before August 22.

Eduardo Noriega

Eduardo Landin

Now we have a first period with this, the admissibility that it takes between 4 and 6 weeks. We'll have the admissibility response from the government, and then there are some sessions that we need to have with the communities, that the government will be present to make sure that the communities agree with the impact study assessment.

What we believe is that we have been extremely professional, working with very strong consultants to make sure that we have presented a very solid document. Together with the good relationship that we have with the communities, and I have to be very insistent on this matter.

We have been able to change the way that we have a relationship with the communities. Today, what we are planning is to integrate the community as contractors, as employees, and I believe that they are happy with this new solution for them.

That's the steps. We have this, what we call taller, social taller with them, and then continue with approval.

We'll have some questions from the authority, and what we expect is to have the approval in a year.

Eduardo Landin

Charlie Gordon

Okay. Thank you.

The last question here at the moment, it looks like you are doing well getting on top of issues at Mara Rosa. Is it fair to expect a full run rate for 2027, and what might that level be?

Charlie Gordon

Eduardo Landin

What we believe that with the current prices, if the prices stay as they are today, we believe that the plan could be between 7,000 and 8 tons per day at its maximum. Of course, once the plan is totally established, we will start doing some bottleneck studies in order to maximize production at our plants.

But at the end, once you reach the maximum capacity, the production depends on the grades, and the grades depends on your cutoff, and the cutoff depends on the cost and the price. We have already studied the budget for 2027, and of course, we will try to maximize production, but making sure that that level of production is not a one-off.

What we want is to establish a level of production that will continue for several years, and we believe that at current prices, with current rates, it could be around 80,000 ounces per year.

Eduardo Landin

Charlie Gordon

Okay. Thank you very much.

That is all the questions there are from the webcast. Can I go back to the phone lines to check there are any more there?

Charlie Gordon

Operator

Yes, we have a follow-up question from Ian Rossouw from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Operator

Ian Rossouw

Thanks. Just a couple of follow-ups.

Firstly, just obviously there was a bit of catch-up payment, I guess, cash up from Argentina, and you paid a $58 million minority dividend to McEwen. I guess first this question is what is the cash position currently in Argentina, and then how should we think about minority dividends in the second half?

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

Thank you, Ian. The cash position is more than $100 million.

In fact, it is around $110 million. The idea is to keep a strong balance sheet in Argentina to execute on all our exploration plans.

As Eduardo pointed out, the geological potential of San Jose is huge, and we want to make sure we execute on those plans. We certainly would like to.

We will distribute the excess of cash to the shareholders. That will probably happen more towards the early next year versus when we finalize the reporting period or accounting period of 2026.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Okay. So we should not expect another big one in the second half?

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

No.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Okay. All right.

Can you guys still hear me?

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

Yes.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Yeah, just to follow up, I guess it's a question I asked in February or in March at the results. Obviously you participated in a placing at Aclara in the period and obviously, followed your proportionate shareholding for the $10 million placing.

What's the plans going forward for the stake? If there are more equity raisings at Aclara, would you consider following your proportional stake again?

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Landin

Yes. Thank you very much.

We know the Aclara team is working on different strategies to finance the development of their projects, and they are very capable and they have been very successful in doing so in the past. I think from what we have discussed with them, they are more looking on debt facilities and on

Eduardo Landin

Eduardo Noriega

asking for more money, but we'll see. They have not finalized that exercise, and we'll see how they come back to us.

As Eduardo pointed out, our core assets are our operating mines, and we're focused on gold and silver. We like exposure that we have in Aclara, but we're mainly focused on gold and silver.

I would say we need to wait and see how the developments of the Aclara team move along, and we'll see from there. But at this point, we're not considering investing more in Aclara.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Okay, thanks. Then maybe just the same question on Tiernan Gold.

Are there any other movements in cash balances we can expect in the second half that might impact the consolidated numbers?

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

No. Thank you for that question, Ian.

No, there is not expected. Tiernan is well-funded to advance a project closer to feasibility and permitting stage.

So that is a work that the team led by Fausto Licampani is executing. We are very happy with the exposure that we have in Aclara.

We have unveiled a lot of value for our shareholders, and the team is doing a fantastic job. That deposit

Eduardo Noriega

Operator

Tiernan.

Operator

Eduardo Noriega

Sorry. Oh, sorry.

Tiernan, I said Aclara. I am sorry.

That deposit is one of the largest gold deposits in the region, and we have a 69% stake there. So there is a lot of value for shareholders and a lot of work, but also a lot of work to be done, as I said, from a technical perspective to move closer to a feasibility and permitting stage.

But no need for additional capital contribution.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Okay. But what costs or CapEx will you consolidate from them in the second half?

Should we expect a similar number as in H1?

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

You can look at the first half, probably, and multiply that by two. That's a rough estimate.

It's not an official guidance because we would like to move as fast as we can in all the studies that we have. It will depend on the capacity from vendors, contractors, and the team to execute.

But I think having an approach that I just described might be reasonable.

Eduardo Noriega

Ian Rossouw

Okay, brilliant. All right.

Thank you. That's all from my side.

Ian Rossouw

Eduardo Noriega

Thank you.

Eduardo Noriega

Operator

Thank you. With this, I'd like to hand the call back over to Eduardo Landín for any additional or closing remarks.

Over to you, sir.

Operator

Eduardo Landin

Well, thank you very much for being here this morning. As we said, we present a very strong set of results for H1.

Let me say something that I feel very proud. Hochschild Mining has been named best place to work, in each of our operation and also at the corporate office.

We believe that the main thing in the company is the talent. We feel very happy to receiving this award.

Thank you so much