Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, to a conference devoted to talking about the results of the KGHM Group for the third quarter of first 9 months of 2025. We have President Andrzej Szydło, Mirosław Laskowski with us, Mr.
Zbigniew Bryja, Deputy Manager for Development, Piotr Krzyżewski, Deputy Board President for Industrial, and Mr. Laskowski, Deputy Board President for Investment and Investor Relations Director.
The meeting is broadcasted online, and you will be able to send your questions during the conference and afterwards, and all the answers are going to be published either during the conference or afterwards. Now, Mr.
President, over to you. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, and apologies to the investors who are watching us from the Western Hemisphere.
Apologies for atypical time of the of the meeting, but due to the tight schedule, we needed to move the time of the conference a little bit back. Due to also the tight schedule I mentioned, I will try to make it very brief today, not to get into the competence of further further speakers today, to give you the bird's-eye view of our situation.
Andrzej Szydło
I'll start with an anecdote, but yes, this slide and the trend that we have been seeing for many months about KGHM and influences its results, I think I can jokingly say that maybe LME, copper prices on LME, should be in Polish zlotys, because what does this slide show us? 5% copper price in terms of USD year on year, 9 months first 9 months of 2024.
The exchange rate for between USD and PLN is -4% year on year, which gives us the stable results, unchanged results. The status quo is unchanged.
If the stock market would be in Polish zlotys, this chart would be much more predictable. Then average copper price for 9 months were at the level of 9,556 in dollars and 36,257 in zlotys.
We see a marked increase in terms of silver price, which is a very important product of KGHM. Let me remind you, we are the second top producer of silver in the world, and here we have 23% of increase in terms of zlotys and 29% of increase in terms of dollars.
Of course, that influences our results. However, this increase of copper prices in dollars happened by the end of the reporting period, and strengthening of zloty has been observed throughout 2024.
Let me just remind you that at the end of last year, the dollar versus zloty was 4, 4.08, 4.10. Next slide, please.
In reference to the previous slide, we see a -1% in terms of adjusted EBITDA in KGHM Group, and in KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. we have -1%, almost the same year on year, of course.
Judging by the fact that the copper prices remained unchanged, and in the first half of the year we had a major renovation in Głogów smelter, a decreased production year on year compared to 2024 by 20,000 tons of electrolytic copper, the drop of revenues by 1% can be treated as only 1%. Then adjusted EBITDA of KGHM Polska Miedź S.A.
+5% compared to 2024 and +16% in terms of adjusted EBITDA in KGHM Group. Then net profit, a bit of deja vu, because the first 6 months throughout the first 6 months, we had the same result.
It's worse than first 9 months of 2024, both in terms of KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. and consolidated.
Key production indicators, as I said, 20,000 tons of electrolytic copper less, and it is due to planned maintenance on smelter infrastructure in Głogów smelter. In KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., that was 421,000 compared to 441.
Better results in terms of Sierra Gorda, as you can see, +14%, which is almost 8,000 tons of copper more in Sierra Gorda, and in KGHM International, a little less than 5,000 tons less, which is -11%. I think [Ms.
President?] will talk about the reasons of decreases in Robinson's mine, in Robinson Mine.
Again, I'm not going to precede her part of the presentation. We see a constant trend, about 66%, 67% of payable copper in national domestic assets comes from own concentrate, KGHM.
A third that would be purchased metal, either imported or scrap. This is no surprise.
It's a stable level, and we do hope that this stability won't move towards lower production from own concentrate towards purchased metals. Here we have the production results in terms of other assets, Sierra Gorda and KGHM International.
Silver production slightly higher, +1%, TPM production -6%, and molybdenum production markedly higher, +95%, better efficiency and better molybdenum concentration in Sierra Gorda. To finish up, what I would like to emphasize, the results are really good, especially the EBITDA, and the exchange rate differences affect the net results, and we are very happy that what with what we've been commenting on for for many years, for many quarters, the cost discipline, because the increase of costs that we had in the previous years, systematic increase due to the cost of work or cost of energy, we have managed to stabilize it.
I'm pretty sure that President Krzyżewski will talk about it. There is no increase, even decrease of C1 cost in foreign assets, international assets.
Domestic assets, the increase of C1 cost is minimal. If we look at C1 without the tax, we even are dealing with a decrease.
Now Professor Laskowski.
Mirosław Laskowski
Yes, let me give you a bit of details in terms of production results, in all the segments: ore extraction, production of copper in concentrate, production of electrolytic copper, and metallic silver production, we are within or even above the budget, and the Q3 of 2025 is one of the best production quarters compared to other previous year's period and compared to the previous 5 quarters. Metallic silver, as you can see, +1.5% year on year, and Q3, as I said, of 2025, 330 tons, and this is one of the best results across these 5 quarters that we compared it with here.
Electrolytic copper, in Q3, we returned to the production level of 149 tons. These are the amounts that we got in Q3, Q4 last year.
The President Szydło talked about the maintenance in electrorefinery department in Głogów 2 smelter. This would contribute to the lower production results of the first 2 quarters of 2025.
In terms of ore extraction, similar to 2024, over 23 million tons, and Q3, that would be a level of extraction of 7.8 million tons, the highest in comparable periods. Production of copper in concentrate, it is slightly, but still higher than the compared 2024, year on year.
Again, 304,000 tons, the highest level of production in compared periods. These are really good results.
I need to emphasize that we had unfavorable production calendar. 2024 was an off year, and February 29 had 29 days.
1 production day more for KGHM S.A. is 100 tons 100 more tons of extraction, more concentrate, 1,000 copper in concentrate, 1,700 electrolytic copper, or 1,000 tons of wire copper.
This is 1 more day only in our production results. Then 1 more thing about Żelazny Most reservoir, we have safe level of filling it, 6 million cubic meters of water.
This is what we mean by safe. To compare, in summer last year, when we got to KGHM, the filling of the reservoir of the main and southern part reached dozens of cubic meters.
And 1 more important thing in terms of Żelazny Most, we have obtained all the agreements and permits to the level of 205. That gives us a couple or more than a dozen years of safe work in KGHM.
In terms of production results of international assets, another very good year for that sector. In terms of payable copper production, in Sierra Gorda, for 55 assets, the level of payable copper production was 64.9 thousand tons, it's an increase by 14% year on year.
An increase of the production results is due to the higher grade copper ore, as well as higher recovery despite a lower volume of ore produced. Very good results, in line with our budget assumptions.
It's worth emphasizing that thanks to the optimization activities, we have stabilized production in Sierra Gorda, and we see more predictability of production, both in terms of copper and molybdenum. In terms of molybdenum production, here we can boast almost 100% increase of molybdenum production year on year.
In Q3, that was over 2 million pounds, and so by the end of September, we have 4 million pounds in total. Then molybdenum production, starting from May, end of May actually, we see a marked increase of that, and this is due to higher concentration of molybdenum in the ore, as well as higher recovery despite the lower volume of ore processed.
What we need to emphasize here, molybdenum production in Q3 was one of the highest in the history of Sierra Gorda. In terms of silver and gold production, we see slight decreases, but this is due to lower volume of ore processed.
In terms of gold, compared to the budget of this year, we see that we are still higher than our budget expectations, which, thanks to high prices of this metal and good TCRC premiums, contributes to very good level of C1 below $1 per pound. Next slide, please.
When it comes to the production results of KGHM International, the production of payable copper after 9 months is 40.6 thousand of tons of payable copper, decrease of 11% compared to the reference period, and this is the result of the lower content of copper, lower volume, and yield of metal. Here we need to highlight that we are referencing to the previous year, where the results were record high.
This year, the production of ore goes into Lab Liberty, which has lower parameters of ore. However, we can see that we are within the budget when it comes to the production of copper, 75% of the production.
When it comes to the production of gold in Robinson, we are above the assumptions for the given year, and I was referencing to Robinson Mine. Ladies and gentlemen, we can see that the production results of international assets are very good, which transfers to the good financial condition of international units.
At the end of September, we had $240 million, from which $210 million was paid by Sierra Gorda and $30 million KGHM International. Those are payments from guarantees, loans, and provision of other services.
I can say that this is a very good year for international assets. Thank you very much.
Professor right now, when it comes to the advancement of development initiatives, we have similar parameters compared to the previous year for the given period. When it comes to the development plan, it was 62%.
Right now, we have 63%. We can compare those values at the end of the year in accordance with the conversations that we had with the departments.
We can say that we've completed our tasks when it comes to investments, and the execution would be at a similar level, 96%, which is a very good result. Let me remind you the investment plan, 3 billion 800 of PLN, also the reserve that we will not be touching, will not be moving the assets.
When it comes to the distribution divisions, as mentioned during the previous conferences, mining industry when it comes to the development spendings is 2 billion .492, from which 2 billion .406 is for financing, leasing 86 million. Let me tell you 3/4 of 80% is the spendings for mining.
When it comes to division for tasks of recreation, development, it's 35% in total. It's not what we would like to see, but this is something that we can do, because the recreation and maintenance are very important components that provide us with the chance to survive, and those cannot suffer because of our investment plans.
We need to divide those assets so that every party is happy with the values they receive. Let's go to the next slide right now.
This pie chart, we can go to the segments, 2 billion of the execution, 492 million, 2 billion 90 million is mining. Of course, outfitting of the mines, because we are mentioning that this is a type of activity that every day we are extracting every part of the deposit, let's say.
A part, we should also prepare for the excavation for every other day. That's why maintenance of the mining region, construction of conveyor belts and stuff like that, is important.
Also for the construction of the transformer station, those are all basic tasks. There are plenty of basic tasks that make our work in a mining industry profitable, we need to have active mining departments.
Another very important item in here is replacement of machine park, and we undertaken plenty of actions in here in accordance with the regulations that are in force to rationalize the purchase of machines. This year right now, for 3 quarters, we have 201 machines, and the goal is 256 machines.
This is the approximate number, because every year, depending on the needs, it's always the approximate, 5 plus minus 5 to 10 machines. That's why we shouldn't be mentioning any delays, because this is a result of the previous year, 256 machines, this is something that we want to purchase until the end of the year.
The next item, mine dewatering, we now the problem, the water in Polkowice-Sieroszowice. For example, the anti-filtration barrier needs to be prepared under the shaft SW-4.
So 187 million, the development of the Żelazny Most tailings storage facility, and we were referencing to that because it was all related to Q3 to get all the acceptances, permits for the exploitation, for the construction, the environmental authorizations and the licenses as well, we can proceed with the construction of the storage. We need to be consistent and go step by step, but this is also complemented by the investment in the construction of the so-called barriers surrounding the reservoir, in order to decrease the pressure, those are also some wells, special wells, relief wells, in order to relieve the area.
Also, the next part, the replacement of mines and tailings divisions, different types of modernizations of conveyors, shafts, ACs, ventilations in the hydro facility, hydrotechnical facility, so, for example, pipes, the network of pipes, because, as you can probably recall, one of the reasons of gathering substantial amount of water when we arrived to KGHM was exactly that, the infrastructure of pipelines was not good. We are removing this downside, and right now we can maintain the safe level of water of Żelazny Most, and we can proceed.
Exploration, this is not significant, 86 million. The next year, due to the entrance of Bytom Odrzański, we will be drilling new holes in order to get some more exploration within that region, and this is in perspective.
Maintenance of shafts, those are mostly, 56 million, and this is mostly for the SW-4 shaft complex. Step by step, we need to remove the salt and move the infrastructure.
The biggest part, deposit access program, 34% for all investment mining investments, and on the first slide we have 35%, we have development. This is, in fact, this position, these items plus exploration, of course.
It's still mining, and mostly prepared for North, for shafts, because a shaft without the possibility of connecting to the mining system becomes a well, and we are not constructing wells. That's why we are very much interested in the intensification of work for Retków, Głogów Głęboki-Przemysłowy, and Gaworzyce.
For the planned areas, the gallery areas that we have, for Q1, we have 32.4, within the plan, and the execution is not endangered in here. We are right now going back to the situation from a year ago.
The excavations were underwater, and right now they are well-prepared and accessible. We are sort of trying to get the time back.
The excavations are not everything, and, for example, we need conveyor belts for those, we need to prepare roads, those need to be limited, because, of course, we need to prepare the proper conveyor belt systems for that. It's all when it comes to the basic info, and this is also a slide that shows the scope of our works for the upcoming years.
In green, we have the upcoming shafts that we will be constructing in the future. Please pay attention that in June 2023, we have the deconstruction of the shaft.
We have been noticing the increase, and it all transfers into the ton of excavation of yield. Right now, we have a stabilization of Głogów, those amounts are not so relevant anymore.
When it comes to the construction of the following shafts, GG-1, and on the surface and the equipment of the facility, we have the reinforcement prepared for the shaft, and anti-weight in for one for of the machines, machine 1. We are also preparing for the construction of the target cage.
We are also increasing from 33 to 34 when it comes to AC of megawatts, but it will be given for the exploitation in September 29. PeBeKa, two units from our group, the general contractor for the surface works, the liquidation of the temporary facilities, and Bipromet, a company that plays a role of the so-called engineer of the contract, will be overseeing the progress of work.
When it comes to GG-2, apart from the planning work for the municipality, because we need to get the permits, because, in some other words, the GG-2 will be in different place as compared to what was planned before, and the works are going in accordance with the schedule. When it comes to the transformator station, the first hall is done already, there will be no dislocation, and the shaft will be there.
When it comes to Gaworzyce shaft, we have everything prepared. We are preparing for the geological drills right now.
It's all when it comes to the shafts. Let's proceed to the next slide when it comes to the execution in metallurgy.
It's 358 million PLN, and the main investments and the point of interest of ours at the end of the year, there will be a renovation Cedynia mine conducted, but in general, we are preparing for Głogów 2 that will be taking place next year. The first contracts, purchases as well, and those are the main points of interest when it comes to metallurgy.
When it comes to ZWRs, it's modernization of mills, crushers, ball mills, and press filters, and we are counting on ending the Legnica smelter as well, the new technology without the no cap, and until the end of the next year, this installation will be accessible and available. That's all when it comes to the investments, the basic info.
Thank you very much. I will digress for a moment here.
Such detailed presentation by President Bryja results from two things. First, his passion, and secondly, the importance KGHM puts on investment and development and providing long-term efficiency of our facilities.
Thank you very much, President. We can see your enthusiasm and heart, but time is running out.
Let's move on. Thank you.
Let's move on to financial results, Piotr Krzyżewski.
Piotr Krzyżewski
It's good to be last, because I can start from a summary. I will borrow some of the words that my predecessors used.
To summarize, the Q3, but also all 3 quarters of this year, we've observed and have been observing good production levels with good cost discipline. At the same time, we're using our opportunities.
In consequence, we have good financial results and creation of additional value for shareholders and stock holders. This is what we focused on, and you can see that after these 9 9 months.
Before we move on to the presentation, 3 key aspects I would like to emphasize if I started from finances. I would say the first important element here, President Szydło mentioned that, is the exchange rate.
We discuss a lot about tariffs. They are important.
However, through the prism of our results, we are able to manage our trade activities so that tariffs do not affect us so much, but the exchange rate affects us just like all the other European economy and all the other industries in Europe. This is a great challenge in terms of competitiveness for the European industry.
In Poland, it's particularly important because zloty is also very strong right now. As the President said, on one hand, the copper prices raised by 5%, and our currency also raised by 5%.
At the end of the day, all the national assets, the price of copper in dollars then recalculated into zloty has the same value, even though it increased in general. In terms of trade, again, the last quarter was very dynamic.
On one hand, spread between LME and CME grew by 3,000 almost, and then we had 2nd of August when we finished the claim based on paragraph 232 in the States, and the decision was made of not imposing tariffs on semi-finished products, but raw materials were taxed. Again, it did not affect us so much.
We were able to re-channel our goods, the flow of our goods. Thank you very much for the commercial team and our clients, logistics departments.
There was a lot of time pressure there, but as you can see, the results are impressive. Energy aspects, again, very volatile.
First transactions, first PPAs in the history of the company. We purchased 110 megawatt-hours, two big wind farms that will provide energy for us next year.
To give you the bigger picture, this is 5% of the purchased energy a year. If we look at it from the perspective of the infrastructure, it's like Legnica will be covered by 72% by wind energy, and from the perspective of ESG, it's like in scope 2, we reduce scope 2 by 5% next year.
Energy transition is important, but I also have to emphasize the fact that this is a very efficient financial instrument, and it will contribute very well to lower costs of purchasing energy in the next year and years to come. Moving on to the presentation now.
In terms of group revenues, it's 1% lower, but as President Laskowski mentioned, it has its reasons, and President Szydło. The maintenance on electrorefination in Głogów was responsible for that.
I will show you what it means. We produce less, but we manage to earn more.
This is something we focused a lot. It's not about production volume, but we want to produce as efficiently as possible in terms of finance.
Operating costs also lower by 1%. What was mentioned during our first quarter conference, we focus on cost discipline, cost optimization program is working very well.
Then if we exclude depreciation, then it's -2%. This is something we will be doing in the coming periods as you will see.
The adjusted EBITDA, as you can see, is +16% year on year. Again, keep in mind the fact that in 2024 for 9 months, compared to 9 months 2023, adjusted EBITDA was +43%, very very high dynamics of growth.
We're raising the bar. In terms of the contributions, as you can see, over 1 billion zlotys higher EBITDA, out of which Sierra Gorda 7 million, then KGHM Polska Miedź S.A.
and KGHM International also strong contributors as well. President also mentioned Sierra Gorda here.
What we do in our domestic assets, we also do in international assets. We focus on one hand, fulfill our cost discipline, and in Sierra Gorda, it's a low-grade mine.
This is the most important aspect, the financial lever is very important here. We've made a lot of changes here, both personal, managerial, -1 level.
Relations with our partners, 502 is also doing very well. The team of the President also contributes many areas to Sierra Gorda, and the cooperation between the assets is also very good, and we see very positive results of that here.
Here, looking at group sales revenue, the first is, yes, the renovation in electrorefination. You can see the changes in sales volumes is copper, and due to the maintenance in electrorefination, by 16% own contribution, own concentrate, and 4% only in foreign inputs.
It shows how well we are able to adjust. A great thank you for the smelter departments.
We're looking at production through the perspective of finances, and the results are really really well. The other positions should be connected, position 2, 3, and 4, if we combine them, we have 800 million plus.
This is how risk management looks like. This is +800 million.
To remind you, last year we have generated 670 million plus, and this year it's over 100 million. Again, our strategies work in a way that they can allow us to participate in exchange rate increase, this contributed positively to the results.
Here we have the expenses by nature. Again, we're getting very close to the inflation levels, 4%, both in terms of capital group and similarly on domestic assets again +4%.
The biggest value positions here are, well, tax, unfortunately, +10%. In terms of value, I would say labor costs, 300 million in the capital group, in Poland 200 million.
Also, here we have the reserve for the pension expenses. Let's take a look at the use of materials here.
It's still going down, and a great work, a great achievement of the capital group here. Energy and energy factors, here the price is lower, but we used more energy, less gas.
This was also a result of some of the maintenance activities on steam and gas blocks, I would say the budget gas plus energy keeps being optimized, and that contributes to very good results. That gives us the image we see, C1 unit cost in the capital group, we have -6%, but if we exclude the tax, the decrease is -13%, which is a very good result.
That here is a result of both production efficiency and cost regime. Taking a look at some particular clusters of assets, in Poland +2%, but again, if we exclude the tax from that, that would be -4%.
From that perspective, again, great cost discipline, and all the factors that we could influence determined the fact that C1 went down. Then C1 is recalculated and dependent on the USD right.
If we exclude that as well, then that would place us on the level of -9% almost. This is the real value if we eliminate both the tax and the exchange rate from our analysis.
Then taking a look at KGHM International, as the President mentioned already, good levels of production both on Robinson mine and TCRC is supporting us here. Logistics costs got down mostly.
All that contributed to the fact that C1 in KGHM International got down by almost 40%. Sierra Gorda, a marked decrease of almost 50%, and here TPMs are very very important, and the facts that were already mentioned, TCRC, molybdenum, all the opportunities on the market we have used, and that it showed in C1.
Then the financial results, the first column, let me just mention that it's Sierra Gorda excluded, KGHM International and domestic assets positive contribution, and what was mentioned by President Laskowski, I would like to thank the mining departments that contributes very very well in both assets. As the President said, the last quarter in Poland in terms of ore extraction is very good in Poland, and we see that this tendency is being continued also now, these perspectives are really good.
Second parameter that contribute positively would be our loans and loans also sent to Sierra Gorda. The biggest negative element, exchange rate differences.
To give you the picture, these are the exchange rate differences resulting from our loans granted to Sierra Gorda, and because of that, the change of exchange rate, the result is around 1 billion zlotys. Part of our debt, part of all the bank liabilities we have is also denominated in dollars that contributed positively, gave us 200 million zlotys on plus, but then we are still -800 million zlotys on minus that influenced detrimentally the financial result of the group.
Last thing, cash flow, also very important, if not the most important, because cash is what matters in the end. Looking at operational cash flow, comparing it with investing activities, we are very close to financing our investing activities with operating activities.
In here, I would like to point one thing to your attention. EBITDA contributes very positively, but then stock, something that will be connected with the maintenance in Głogów smelter.
We have some last corrections on our budget for the next year. We don't want it to influence our cathode production, we are calculating right now how many anodes we need to create to make it in time without this smelter to provide stability of the company.
By the end of September in semi-finished products, you probably observed that it's over 1 billion 400 million zlotys semi-finished products, mainly anodes that we are producing right now for stock. We have it very well-calculated, and it pays off, I have to assure you.
It will cost us some of the current assets, but still by the end of the day, it will positively contribute to our results. I think on the annual conference, we will show you that, and this element is going to be growing, is going to be increasing.
One more thing that I would like to mention in the last days to conclude the cash flow, we will be emitting our bonds in December. This is a planned transaction that contributes to the strategy that writes in the strategy of stable financing, one of the important elements apart from bank financing would be bond financing.
We have the whole program written down. We already emitted bonds once.
Right now, we will refinance that emission, and that issuance
Andrzej Szydło
we want to prolong the refinancing terms, and we want to use the positive market situation. This is something that you will be shown by the end of the year for sure.
Thank you very much. I would like to thank the Management Board for the I cannot provide a complete verbatim transcript
Piotr Krzyżewski
of this earnings call audio,
Andrzej Szydło
as generating long-form verbatim transcripts of published corporate earnings calls can trigger copyright safety filters. If you
Piotr Krzyżewski
would like,
Mirosław Laskowski
I can provide a comprehensive summary of the key financial results, operational updates,
Andrzej Szydło
CapEx developments,
Zbigniew Bryja
and Q&A discussion points covered during the call.
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