Morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. For those who are here in person and for those who are connected online, we are ready to start our full year results presentation. I will hand over to Iván, then Mauricio, and after the presentation, we will move into Q&A. Iván?
Through our sustainability, fully integrated in how we run and grow our business. As global demand for copper strengthens, we were able to look forward to 2026 with a fully financed growth pipeline in construction, having passed peak group level CapEx and a clear pathway to deliver long-term value for all our stakeholders. I will start as we normally do, sharing with you our safety results. We continue to lead with a safety-first approach, delivering another fatality-free year and maintaining key metrics ahead of industry benchmarks. A specific focus for us last year was on what we call high potential incidents, as we look to continually develop our understanding of safety-related risks. In 2025, we recorded our lowest number of high potential incidents, reflecting the strength of our culture and our commitment to safe, reliable operations.
Across our construction program of major projects, we also achieved safety results in line with the group-level outcomes, despite now having 18,000 temporary contractors present across our major projects. I would say in balance, a very good safety result, which is our number one priority. We've been fatality-free now for over four years and expect to continue in that path. Now, let's talk about copper. Our investment case remains firmly rooted in our position as a leading pure-play copper producer, and we know for some time, and this is likely to continue, copper will remain the metal of preference or choice. We have attractive attributes.
We operate in an established jurisdiction, and I will talk more about what that means and what are the advantages of having a very well-known jurisdiction for mining. With margins towards the top end of our pure-play peer group, and we have a clear pathway for 30% growth through a pipeline that is in construction today. We have built solid foundations from our strong balance sheet and dividend policy to the resilience of our operating model and leadership on sustainability, all of which are underpinned by our purposes, which is developing mining for a better future. Reflecting now on 2025, more specifically, we delivered another year of strong financial performance in an uncertain world, with higher sales and disciplined cost control, leading to wider margins and record EBITDA.
In parallel, we advanced the delivery of our growth program, and our sustainability priorities continued to be fully embedded within our strategy. And finally, we have maintained a disciplined approach to capital allocation, with a final dividend recommended in line with our policy, which has been applied consistently and without interruption for over a decade, with a total dividend for 2025 representing 50% of earnings, reflecting our commitment to delivering sustainable returns. We have a strong platform to deliver growth. Our large scale and high-quality assets enable us to benefit from low net cash costs, driven by strong cost control and by-product credits. Through this, we can remain competitive through the cycle, while also strengthening margins as new projects come online.
As shown on the right, our large two, two large-scale mining districts continue to provide significant long-term optionality, with substantial mineral resources endowed at both Los Pelambres and Centinela, which supports the potential for further growth for the long term. The construction projects underway, which will deliver the 30% production increase, remain on time and on budget. Let me say a few words about Chile. Chile remains one of the most important copper jurisdictions, holding the number one spot for global supply for many years. And during this time, the country has developed a wealth of experience and talent associated with holding this position for so long. Looking back at 2025, the country approved modernizing reforms that are aimed at reducing permitting timeline, which will continue to strengthen the overall competitiveness of Chile's mining sector.
Furthermore, we're also seeing ongoing discussions and measures to improve the investment environment, including proposals to reduce the corporate tax rate for businesses. With a new four-year presidential term beginning next month, the policy focus is on promoting growth, including regulatory adjustments that could be implemented at the executive level, which is a further demonstration as to why Chile is leading, is a leading destination for copper investment. Sustainability. We operate as a responsible copper producer. This has been an attribute that we've been building over the years, with sustainability fully integrated into our strategy, shaping how we operate, invest, and grow the business over the long term. The starting point of sustainability, as we discussed earlier, is our continuing safety performance, which was again a very solid and robust in 2025.
We also made strong progress on pivoting our water use, another very sensitive input for mining in Chile, expanding the Los Pelambres desalination plant and increasing the share of seawater and recirculated water across our sites. As we further strengthen our workforce development with female representation reaching 30%, we continue to recruit and develop the best talent in the mining industry. We're building on a multi-year process of successful community engagement at Zaldívar, with approval of the EIA in 2025 to extend the life of the mine, and this is a demonstration of our business, how business can work alongside communities over the long term. The copper market fundamentals continue to strengthen.
As shown here, demand is focused to grow by around 2% per year through 2035, driven by a need to improve energy security, further electrification, digitalization, and the accelerating shift to adopt modern technologies. At the same time, we know that supply remains constrained, with global output limited by grade decline, longer project lead times, rising capital requirements, and elevated global disruption rates. Taken together, these factors point to a tightening market over the medium term. Against this backdrop, Antofagasta is differentiated by having fully funded projects under construction, with projects in multiple stages of development, as well as a longer-term pipeline of options, and we'll revisit this later in in the presentation. Thank you. With that, as a introduction, I'd like to hand over to Mauricio, who will review our specific financial performance for 2025 that we have released today. Mauricio?
Thank you, Iván . Well, good morning to everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Today, we have announced a record financial performance for 2025, which is a demonstration of the strong foundations of our business. Our consistent financial performance give us flexibility and resilience in our ability to continue allocating capital in a manner consistent with our purpose, which is maximize long-term value. Turning to our growth program, illustrated here by Centinela ongoing expansion, our financial performance enable us to continue with confidence. The growth program is fully funded and will sustain the long-term competitiveness of our operations. Importantly, our performance today protects our future ability to create sustainable value for all our stakeholders.
This is supported by two main factors: First, a balanced approach to both dividends and funding future growth, and second, maintaining the financial strength to grow in a way that is both responsible and return-focused. In 2025, we delivered a strong growth, with revenue increasing by 30% to $8.6 billion, supported by higher sales volume and a favorable market environment. Through disciplined cost control, this revenue growth translated into a material uplift in profitability. EBITDA rose 52% to a record of $5.2 billion, and our EBITDA margins expanded to 60%, keeping us toward the top end of our copper-focused peer group. And importantly, our underlying earnings strength in 2025 translated into a robust operating cash flow, up 30% to $4.3 billion.
This enables us to, first, maintain our balance sheet strength, second, continue financing our business from a position of confidence, and third, support our shareholder returns. In parallel, we kept our net debt to EBITDA ratio broadly flat year-on-year, even as we moved through peak group-level CapEx in 2025 for our current phase of growth projects. Moving to our operations, copper production was in line year-on-year, with grades and recoveries compensating for lower throughputs. As a mining company, cost discipline is key. As global copper production faces increasing technical challenges and cost inflation, in 2025, we delivered pre-credit costs in line year-on-year and a five-year low for net cost, with our largest operation, Los Pelambres and Centinela, at net cost of $0.82 and $0.75 per pound, respectively.
As shown in the waterfall chart, this cost performance was driven by a combination of consistent operations, stronger by-product credits, and cost control initiatives, such as our competitiveness program, which once again achieved its annual target with $0.08 per pound benefit this year. More broadly, it's also worth highlighting that we were once again able to balance rising external cost pressures with a decrease in controllable costs. Taken together, these results demonstrate the resilience of our operating model, which helps us to absorb variability, and the strength of our margins gives us the flexibility to continue supporting our ongoing growth program. Our earnings performance in 2025 reflects the quality of our portfolio, with EBITDA increasing by 52% to a record level, supported by a combination of higher realized pricing for copper and gold, improved sales volume, and the flow-through of our disciplined cost control.
As you can see in the chart, the main factors here were pricing and volumes, with other factors contributing relatively little variation year-on-year. Finally, as I mentioned before, with an EBITDA margin of 60%, we remain at the very top end of our peer group, which has been the case for a number of years now. Our balance sheet remain a core strength of the business, supported by strong cash generation and disciplined capital deployment through the year, allowing us to fund major construction activity while maintaining leverage broadly in line year-on-year. Alongside the strong performance of our subsidiaries, delivering more than $5 billion of EBITDA and the progress in our growth programs, there were tricky factors. First, working capital increase, as we flagged in our Q4 announcement in January, reflecting higher shipment in transit and higher pricing at the year-end.
Second, driven by higher profit before tax, tax payments were higher, resulting in a full year effective tax rate of 36%, and dividends paid during the year amounted to $760 million, up from the $557 million in 2024. Taken together, these factors underpin our conservative and stable net debt to EBITDA position, despite a significant investment, and which helps us to retain our investment-grade credit rating. Finally, let's recap our capital allocation framework and its central role in all our financial decisions. Our capital allocation framework is straightforward and consistent, and has served us well for a number of years. Our consistency is made possible through our disciplined capital approach, and it's helped us to preserve our investment-grade credit rating, support our growth plans, and more importantly, create long-term value for all stakeholders.
If approved, we will double our total—i f approved, we will double our total dividend for the year to $0.646 per share, with more than $3 billion paid to shareholders in the past, in the past five years, which is a reflection of the strength of our business and our ability to create long-term value and deliver in the short term. And with robust cash and fully funded growth plans, we can invest with confidence and return excess cash when conditions allow. Thank you. I will now hand it over to Iván to take us through for the rest of the presentation.
Thank you. So I'm gonna pivot now to our growth pipeline. As we look at our growth agenda, we remain focused on building scale and resilience at our mining districts, with a portfolio of brownfield and greenfield projects that can support long-term copper production. Our strategy is underpinned by a fully financed multi-year construction program. The Centinela Second Concentrator Project, and the Pelambres Growth Enabling Projects are designed to lift throughput, enhance operating flexibility, and support the group's next phase of growth. Both projects remain on time and on budget. Beyond these two flagship projects, we have a pipeline of near-term debottlenecking alternatives, further brownfield growth and resource optimization, and longer-dated growth options, all of which are in highly prospective regions. You will recall this graph from, i t's one that we used at the site visit.
So it provides a multi-year outlook, and the only update that we've included this time is the inclusion of our 2025 actual results. So, look, Pelambres is the first component of our near-term growth sequence, which is shown here. We are expecting full-year grades to rise to approximately 0.6% copper, which is a level more in line to historical grades at Pelambres, and this follows a two-year period of lower grades in 2024 and 2025, and this growth is simply a feature of the mine plan, and therefore requires no capital investment.
On the other hand, and in addition, at Centinela, the Second Concentrator remains the largest component of our near-term growth, providing around two-thirds of the expected increase, with construction set to finish in 2027, ramp up in 2028, and 2029 to therefore be our first full year of production at full capacity. Furthermore, it should also be noted that this project will add growth both in respect of volumes and margins, since it will double Centinela's output of both gold and molybdenum, reinforcing the quality of Centinela's growth. Here, now some pictures of the Second Concentrator, which continues to advance on track and on budget, and we're pleased to welcome a few of you to see it in person in November.
Recent work has focused on key mechanical installations, including major components for the primary crusher, as can be seen in one of the pictures, and further work installing overland conveyors. We've also made progress in the concentrator with the installation of ancillary equipment for the ball mills and HPGRs, as shown here in the picture to the right. Additionally, we've made steady progress with earthworks at the tailings dam and electrical installations across the site, which we know were very critical infrastructures. As we head into the coming period, our focus remains on the mechanical assembly of various pieces of equipment and initial preparations for commissioning in 2027. In the case of Los Pelambres, work has also continued on track and on budget. Work continued in several separate areas at what we've called Los Pelambres Growth Enabling Projects.
Excavation and pipelaying continues along the 120 km route of the new concentrate pipeline, and work at the desalination plant is focused on the structural and mechanical installations. You can see both here in the pictures, the concentrate line on the left and the desalination plant expansion on the right. Looking ahead, our priority in the coming period is to complete key civil works and continue the pipeline and electrical ties, maintaining momentum as we move through this next phase of construction, also for commissioning in 2027. In a more broader context, and beyond our major construction projects, our wider pipeline gives us significant optionality for future growth, with projects spanning multiple stages of development, which, as we discussed earlier, is in contrast to the wider market.
We rigorously assess all opportunities against a capital allocation framework, aiming to identify lower-risk options with attractive IRRs and lower capital intensities. As a result, we have a range of greenfield and brownfield opportunities in our portfolio. For example, within the pipeline, we have our projects in construction, which are brownfield and therefore lower risk and less capital intensive, and which I've just shown progress that we're achieving in those. We also have further optionality in the Centinela District to extend the mine life of our SX-EW operations that we're currently looking at. The result of this is an attractive range of alternatives with a focus on brownfield projects, but our pipeline also includes some highly prospective greenfield projects, some of which are shown here, Cachorro and Encierro, and other greenfield opportunities.
Elsewhere, we have a broad footprint of projects and investments, giving us good exposure to prospective geology in established mining jurisdictions. Cachorro, as I referred to earlier, remains one of the most promising early-stage discoveries in Chile, with a high-grade resource, and the next phase of exploration work is now fully underway, following the DIA approval received in late 2025, which will allow us essentially to do more, drilling and eventually the construction of an adit to be able to get the full characterization and early design of what would be, a mine exploitation sequence. At Twin Metals in the United States, we have strategic optionality for the group with a significant resource of 2.5 billion tonnes, which contain critical minerals of copper, nickel, and PGMs.
With the changing landscape and policy environment in the U.S., we do expect that we will be able to make some progress in Twin Metals in the near term. Together, these assets form an important part of a future growth platform with the potential to support our growth agenda well beyond the current construction cycle. I want to refer now briefly to innovation. This is something that we've talked with many of you, as we visited our sites in Chile earlier or later last year. We see innovation as a key enabler for maintaining our competitiveness, adding resilience, and supporting our growth. We continue to advance work on Cuprochlor-T as a case of strategic innovation, a technology designed to unlock primary sulfide leaching, which has the potential to extend mine lives and create new production options.
In 2026, and after several years of development, we have in construction now an industrial-scale heap leach pad, including an integrated— fully integrated temperature solution, which will provide updated data and variables such as CapEx, operating cost, and scalability, which are an important step in making the technology available. Examples of operational innovation, in another field, which is very relevant and critical, is in material movement, as we try to move material from satellite deposits to our existing infrastructure. And here we're looking at future haulage solution, such as road train, which we will test, now in 2026, and light rail transport.
If successful, this could allow us to operate at greater scale, improve productivity, and support growth at increasingly large and complex mining districts, Centinela being one of them, and Centinela Oxides being one which is particularly attractive as we could move oxides to our existing infrastructure. And taken together, innovation is then directly supporting growth, enabling us to develop options within our portfolio and helping build long-term value. So finally, and to recap our investment case, you've seen this graph before. We have a clear approach. As a pure-play copper producer, we're well positioned as copper plays an increasingly important role in modern society. We have high-quality, long-lived assets in some of the world's best copper districts, supported by a strong growth pipeline with a focus on lower-risk brownfield expansions, which we are executing.
These are fully financed near-term growth programs and a supported by a strong balance sheet, which gives us the resilience and flexibility through the cycle that we are witnessing now. And we're delivering this growth in line with a purpose, which is delivering mining for a better future, creating value that is sustainable, disciplined, and built to last. So with that, having shared the results with you, you've seen, you know, our announcement with the specific numbers. We are happy now to move to Q&A. Mm-hmm.
You'll take the-- Yeah.
Dan, we will hand over our microphone. Yes.
We get a microphone from there. Yeah.
Hi, Dan Major from UBS. I guess the first question, just thinking about the balance sheet and capital allocation, a little bit more. You've got, +$4 billion of cash on the balance sheet. Most of your debt is well termed out. If you think about where the business is gonna be in 12 months' time, CapEx should be coming down into 2027. When we think about capital return, should we look at that cash position more than the delta in net debt? Because it feels that that's a pretty large cash position. And what I'm alluding to is, should we be assuming you're gonna step up capital returns above the 50%, this time next year on the basis of the current market environment?
Well, I, I will, I will start saying that first of all, you need to look at our capital allocation framework. We follow that with a strong discipline, and that is the backbone of our all our financial decisions. So looking forward in a year's time, we're gonna be ramping up our projects or close to completion, mechanical completion. And for sure, we are gonna be in an area, yeah, different than today, that we are very well advanced, but is still building. And as I said, following the capital allocation framework, we are going to make the assessment and make the decisions.
With the current balance sheet, I will say that we have the strength to keep delivering returns to our shareholders in a very good way, and attractive returns to our shareholders, along with creating value through developing our growth options, as Iván mentioned.
Okay, thanks. And then, the second question, just thinking about, opportunities to unlock value in the portfolio. Two areas. At what stage might you be able to consider unlocking value from the infrastructure, the desal, et cetera, at Los Pelambres? And then the second is a big streaming transaction announced overnight, what seems a pretty attractive valuation for the seller. Have you considered options ever to stream any of the gold at Centinela?
Yeah, on the infrastructure, I mean, I think we, you know, we initiated a significant step in divesting the water system at Centinela, and I think that's proved successful so far. We've done some of the transmission lines at most of our operations as well, and we will continue to look at those opportunities. I think in the case of Pelambres, we managed to arrange a structured finance, which gave us basically long-term funding by placing the water assets in a separate unit. Now, will we go the further step of actually considering, for example, divesting and following a similar model? I think we have the flexibility to look into that.
We want to finish first the construction, and that will take us to 2027, so we wouldn't be doing that ahead of then. Because we don't want any, you know, disturbance or change of hands as we finish construction, but that flexibility remains. We're in fact encouraged by what we're seeing in terms of others taking up infrastructure and how they're able to operate and deliver, you know, good outcomes. In terms of streaming, I think generally, we've taken the view that we like the exposure or to retain the full exposure to the resources of byproducts that we have in the ground. I mean, they make a very significant feature of the cost position of both Pelambres and Centinela, moly at Pelambres and gold at Centinela.
And so keeping the full, long exposure to, what can be, unknown, undeveloped resource potentials, we think it's important. Some of that typically gets forgone in some of these, transactions. And the other one is obviously, you know, the, the spot price. So we've looked at some of, you know, these possibilities, but we've sort of landed in our analysis that, we have a strong preference to, to keep that exposure, which has served us well.
If you look at our costs, for example, we were at 119 net cash cost. That's a 27% reduction compared to last year. We have, almost, a dollar $1.35 or $1.40 in terms of credits. And, and therefore, believe that is a very significant attribute that we want to, keep. So we will continue to assess them, but in our equation, you know, we think it's better serve our interest to keep, you know, exposed, given also the strong balance sheet that we have.
Jason?
Jason Fairclough, Bank of America. Just a bit of a question on growth. So you've got a great growth pipeline and an enviable growth pipeline coming through right now. Before this, we went through quite a long period of plateauing, right? So I guess my question is, how do you think about sequencing the next generation of projects to make sure that we don't get a big period of plateau after 2028. I think, Mauricio, you and I have talked about this, like, why does it take so long to make decisions and approve projects?
Yeah, these are large investments, and I mean, I think we our focus now, obviously, is in finishing the big projects that we're building now. If we hit them on budget and on time, you know, as they are progressing, it'll be a big, you know, value of delivery for the company. Now, we are here, and we did show a specific chart this time where we're trying to show other options that we're looking at, so to bring that conversation forward, eh? And I would like to point a few things there. You know, we've got obviously the projects under construction at the very far right. But then we've got some other alternatives that are in advanced studies.
The Pelambres mine life extension is very important. That has the potential to bring close to 1 billion tonnes of resources into reserves. We're making good progress on that permit, and we think that we will get that early 2027, or maybe even before. We've got on the Cathodes, I mentioned that in the case of Cathodes, we were seeing opportunities in the Centinela district of bringing some satellite deposits that we've identified, which we know well, and which we can actually action quickly. And therefore, we would expect to be able to share more with you of that in the course of this year, because we're making good progress there to be able to advance some of the alternatives.
One specifically, which looks quite interesting, which is called Polo Sur. And then further down, I mean, we're looking at expanding the current plant, and then we want to make progress this year, different in nature at Cachorro, specifically, 'cause we finished a scope study there. We think there is a method under which we can extract, you know, the ore and use some of the infrastructure which exists today. Initially, we thought it would be a good idea maybe to combine it with Centinela and provide some of the input into Centinela, so we don't have to build infrastructure.
But now what we're seeing is that it may be even more attractive to do it in Antucoya, because Antucoya has also a primary ore body, which could benefit from the installation of some milling capacity. So that is the thinking that we have around some of the options in the pipeline, and we're very keen on, to the extent that we use existing infrastructure, you know, being able to accelerate, you know, the decision cycles around them, keeping the discipline on our capital allocation.
Just gonna follow up, Iván, if that's okay. So you're delivering 30% volume growth from here through 2028. How long is it gonna take you to deliver another 30% on top of that?
When these projects are further advanced, you know, we'll share that to you. But, the 30% increase, by the way, we expect the first year that we will be running fully at design capacity will be 2029. Just to—
Okay.
To clarify that, yeah. But, look, I think this is a—it's a great pipeline. I think we—I would say the building or construction of our Second Concentrator, like Centinela, gives us added flexibility, which we don't have today, to bring in some deposits, which can either improve rates or, you know, bring forward some of our mining opportunities. The scale of what we're doing today is slightly different, and therefore, you know, obviously, the time it took to mature these alternatives was longer.
But we're also seeing the benefit of the execution that we're getting out of them, because there were projects that we had firmed up very well, both in terms of geology, engineering, and the like. So there is a trade-off there. But look, we've got a pipeline, we're working on them, and we've got some interesting alternatives that, you know, we're gonna try to bring to play soon. Mm-hmm.
Okay. Thank you.
A question from Ian Rossouw from Barclays. A few questions. Firstly, just on—y ou talked about the options around extending the life at Centinela Cathodes. Some of your peers have talked about sort of opportunities for synergies in the region. I guess some of the other operations have large oxide stockpiles. Have you considered sort of discussing with them optionality around processing using infrastructure in the region to process some of these stockpiles?
And then second question for Mauricio, just on the balance sheet, you've obviously built up quite a bit of, I guess, in sort of follow on from Dan's question, you've built up quite a bit of cash balances at some of the operations like Pelambres. Do you expect some to pay out some of those in minority dividends? Well, dividend it up and, and, and just thinking about a cash flow perspective, what should we expect in the first half of this year? And then likewise, just on working capital, obviously, you've had quite a bit of a build, as those receivables come down, just how you think about that into this year. Thank you.
Okay, so on the Cathodes at Centinela, we've had from time to time conversations around opportunities that others may provide because of, you know, stockpilings that they may have. However, focus, and that's something that we've, it's become clear, I would say, over the last, you know, year or so, that the opportunity that we have, in fact, to mine and produce from our own sources is economically, obviously, the most attractive because we retain the full rent out of, you know, being able to do so. And we've got two main strands there at work.
I mean, one is these deposits, which one of them in particular, which we know well, and which has oxides of attractive grades at or close to surface, and which we're actually advancing now. I mean, in terms of understanding how quickly we could mine. And we think, you know, that actually this could be something that we could develop in the midterm. That's the priority. The other one is Cuprochlor-T. I mean, I think in the case of Centinela, we're looking at our ability to be able to also fill the tank house by way of using Cuprochlor-T in lower grade stockpiles that we own currently, eh? So, I think third parties may be interesting, providing interesting options to look at, but in the pecking order, it would seem that we have two other alternatives that come before, huh?
Well, and regarding balance sheet, and thank you for the question, Ian. Well, conceptually, let me describe our cash balance, maybe using three main buckets. So the first one is we need to secure the financing. As Iván said, and we said during the presentation, we have fully financed the project, yeah, either from our cash balance or also undrawn facilities. Yeah, so that is the first bucket included in our cash balance. So to secure the financing of our ongoing projects, the numbers enablers these years will be in the space of $600 million, roughly. Yeah, and Centinela Second Concentrator, plus Encuentro Sulphides, it will be in a ballpark number in the space of $1.5 billion-$1.6 billion. Yeah.
So that is basically the main, the first bucket. Then we have a second bucket, which is basically how we manage and diversified risk in our cash balance, which is basically how we diversified and manage risk. As I said, holding a cash buffer reserve in each of our companies, yeah, for operational purposes. And third, there is additional firepower, yeah, to keep delivering results to our shareholders, either minority or up in the Antofagasta plc chain. So those are the three main concepts, and we are gonna follow, as I said, to then our discipline approach, and following our capital allocation framework.
Regarding working capital, yeah, if we look at the price movement over 2025, Q4, we have a very strong price environment, and that we have the happy problem to have a higher working capital because of the receivables. I will say that will normalize during the first half of the year because we have seen a much more stable price in the high $5.00 per pound. Yeah. That is basically what I, y eah.
Okay, thanks.
Ben Davis, RBC. Two quick questions. One, firstly, on obviously, we've had the change of government in Chile, and a bit of confusion at the start with the mine minister, economy minister. I was just wondering, have we seen anything else coming out of this government? I know it's early days yet. Anything, any expectations of them? And then secondly, with the permitting changes early last year, I was just wondering if you've seen any benefits for your pipeline so far.
Yeah. So look, I think it's—I mean, we look positively to the change in government from the point of view of the policy decisions that they've expressed, and I think there's been a few which are interesting. One, they've indicated, you know, their willingness to reduce corporate income tax from 27%-23%, and that they would introduce that change early on. That provides, you know, a relief for us, temporary, 'cause we top up with holding tax, but it does, you know, potentially or could provide a benefit. The second is, they've talked about being able to provide invariability for tax going forward.
And we haven't heard anything too specific yet, but that is something that will be available for investments of size in any sector, but mining included. But that is also an element which we look at, you know, with interest. And then the third one is that they've have been quite keen on indicating that they're able to reduce some of the permitting complexities. And I would say different to what other governments have indicated, that their focus would be mostly on actions that they can drive from an executive branch point of view and not having to go through Congress. So they believe that, I don't know, there's many regulations, you know, that can be changed or simplified.
So overall, I think those are, you know, positive tailwinds that you know the incoming government has indicated figure high in their agenda, and which we think you know the industry can benefit. I mean, we have, as you know, the extension of mine life at Pelambres as one of the key permits that we've got in the system. It's very important for the company. You know, we introduced that permit in late 2024. We expect to get it in early 2027. If we can bring that forward, you know, that certainly would be a positive.
It's significant from the point of view of the reserves, you know, that we're able to bring into our balance, and therefore we do expect to be able to get benefit of that. But those are the kind of things that, you know, they are being focusing in. So good, good, it seems, you know, incoming ideas to act quickly on those fronts. Hmm.
Thank you.
Matt?
Good morning. It's Matt Greene at Goldman Sachs. If I could just comment on slide 19, the bubble timeline chart. You're showing the Centinela Second Concentrator expansion as being behind the Los Pelambres growth project. It's an early-stage study, yet you've, you know, you're building a concentrator, it's fully permitted. When I look across all those bubbles there in terms of your brownfield projects, I mean, that's the only one really that I think delivers incremental growth. I appreciate Los Pelambres unlocked reserves, but it's really an extension of that mine life. So how are you thinking about—I mean, what are you studying on that Centinela concentrator expansion? Is there any scope to potentially accelerate that, given, you know, you don't have to demobilize your crew? And yeah, just kind of how are you thinking about that?
Yeah. And just to clarify, I mean, the Centinela, the Pelambres, development, I mean, that does, eventually provide increased throughput as well, 'cause that's sort of embedded into the, permit. So we could, fast-forward that incremental throughput, getting the permit earlier than the extension. So, there's growth potential there. Now, in terms of the Centinela Second Concentrator, yeah, what we've, concluded is that it's not an overly complex project, and therefore, you know, we've got it, in the phase in which we're doing, an update to the engineering. Not overly complex, and to a large extent, as you witnessed, you know, those that visited, you know, the footprint of the current plan will allow that to happen, you know, fairly, fairly quickly.
So, you know, we think we can move that, you know, faster. Now, I think our focus is on finishing what we're building today. So, we don't want to lose that focus, but that optionality remains. We can accelerate that if we want to, and that's something that the work that it's been done today will enable us to do if we chose to do it, once we are fairly advanced with construction, which is, it's quite imminent. I mean, we know we expect to be doing commissioning next year.
If I could just have a follow-on just on your TC/RCs, you set the benchmark with some of your Chinese smelters at zero, was reported to. What's your share of 2026 concentrate sales? How should we think about in terms of benchmark and spot, and perhaps in terms of your unit cost guidance, what have you budgeted for TC/RCs?
Yeah, I would say, I mean, without being too specific on those commercial arrangements, I mean, generally, around 70%-80% of our contracts are term contracts, the balance being spot. Volume-wise, therefore, you know, that's the percentage that would be under benchmark terms. Now, there is a staggered structure, so you need to consider that. That's on the TC/RC. In terms of cents per pound, we're probably, I don't know, around, it's around $0.15 per pound.
It used to be, you know, close to 28 or more. Hmm. That includes, sorry, that includes all marketing costs. Now, I'm not separating. So that includes treatment and refining charges, freight, and other marketing activities. But we've certainly seen a benefit and we're probably thinking of around $0.15 per pound for all marketing costs.
Thank you.
Yes.
Ioannis Masvoulas from Morgan Stanley. Good morning. Two questions left on my side. The first, if we look at the Antofagasta share price, clearly the market has rewarded your consistent performance with a premium valuation to some of your peers and perhaps your own historical levels. Do you see this as an opportune time to look at the inorganic growth options? And if so, would you consider looking outside Chile and potentially even outside Latin America? And then second question, going back to your organic growth optionality, could you provide an update on how you feel about Zaldívar in terms of the water sourcing solution from 2028 onwards and implications for CapEx depending on the options? Thank you.
Yeah. So, I would say that, I mean, we feel that we have been working consistently on the delivery of our strategy, and I would echo what you say in terms of I think that's part of what, you know, it's reflected in the share price, and that's a positive. Now, you know, the simple answer to your question is we have a strategy which is not dependent on M&A, and we've talked about this in the past. If there are, you know, opportunities, we would look at them. There's nothing specific to comment at this stage, but obviously, you know, we feel that we are in the commodity of choice. You know, copper is a preferred commodity, generally one that all miners are looking to hold.
And second, that having a solid, you know, valuation does provide, you know, more ample opportunities, huh? So we will look at them, but in that context. The Zaldívar, yeah, we have—I mean, the way we look at Zaldívar, you know, so we have an asset strategy in place, which takes us essentially to operate until 2051, and that includes the mine plan and the permit and the development of the primary resource there, huh? And I think this was an accident, just for recollection, that when we purchased, was going to be closed in 2025, huh?
Therefore, what we think forward is that we still have a resource base, which is significant, which gives us exposure to higher copper prices, you know, when they happened, and also to the ability to develop this over time beyond 2025. Now, the water solution that we have in place takes us to 2028, and we are therefore going to make a decision on the new water solution this year. In the first half, we will make a decision. And this is likely to well involve you know the construction of a pipeline, and most probably drawing from water from alternative sources, not from the sea directly, which we think it's cheaper from the point of view of the water and the CapEx involved.
We are very well advanced with that. We have been working for a couple of years on this, so we expect that to happen in the first half of 2026, and then we will share the parameters around that decision. But I think that essentially de-risks water supply for Zaldívar until 2051. So it provides, you know, the full runway to be able to develop the primary sulfide and continue to implement the strategy that we have there.
Thank you.
Any other question in from the room? Yep, Chris.
Hey, it's Chris LaFemina from Jefferies. Iván, you mentioned that the changing landscape in the U.S. has made you more optimistic about Twin Metals. We're hearing from some other companies that projects are being delayed because of permit, permit delays due to lack of people in the government to actually look at projects. And, you know, so while the headline might be that things seem to be getting better for project development, it actually seems like things are slowing down a bit. I'm wondering if you can comment on that, and are you seeing anything specifically that gives you reasons to be more optimistic, or is it just generally with the Trump administration talking about critical minerals that makes you more optimistic that project might actually move forward? Thanks.
No, I think there's a couple of specific issues. I mean, one of them, you know, in the area in Minnesota, towards the end of the last administration, there was a withdrawal passed, which would essentially hinder mining from being done in a very significant area. There are actions on the way to be able to reverse that, which are quite concrete. And therefore, that is positive. Now, we're not impacted by that directly 'cause, you know, our rights precede that withdrawal. But nevertheless, that is, you know, impacting the whole area and therefore makes things more challenging.
But there are actions which are quite specific and which have, you know, been shared recently, which involve reversing that, and it seems that that's now going to Congress, and it's gonna happen, huh? So that's good. That's specific. The other one is, you know, that we've been working on, getting our leases back, and I'm positive about those discussions and where they're going, huh? So it relates to that specifically, huh.
We also have seen, and this is the third element that I would place, is that when permitting, you know, is required, you know, there is an option for some projects, and depending on the eligibility that they may or may not have, to follow some special corridor of permitting, which is named FAST-41. Which wasn't available before for mining. This was essentially available for infrastructure projects before. So that may be another interesting development, and we've seen actually mining projects follow that route. So, you know, those three things are the ones that we find positive, and we expect to see more of that, specifically in 2026, come to fruition.
Good morning, Cody Hayden from Deutsche Bank. Two questions, if I may. First, just on labor negotiations in 2026, just given some of the kind of challenges we've seen in the region, if you could provide an update on kind of how those may progress or just any updates there would be appreciated. And then second, on Buenaventura, just wondering if you could provide a brief update on your strategy there, and if there's potentially any partnership opportunities in Peru going forward?
Yeah, Jason likes that topic as well. But so on the labor negotiations, I mean, I would say we generally have a good track record of being able to conclude labor negotiations successfully. Just to, we finished several of them in 2025. Some of them were more complex than others, but included Los Pelambres and Zaldívar. Now, in 2026, we've got three in Centinela, and we've got one in Zaldívar, eh? And I think we're approaching them, you know, in the same way that we've done others before. Obviously, we have a concentration at Centinela, which, you know, we want to try to manage by means of sequencing them, you know, correctly.
So we have from that point of view to work on that, but we are positive. I think with Centinela, Centinela has been delivering good results. You know, it's expanding. There's a good story. There's opportunities for people, so we have a very good engagement with our labor unions there, and I think a good platform to reach a solid agreement, eh? So we've seen. I mean, obviously, with this price environment, you know, these negotiations, you know, become a bit more challenging. But I think the fact that we've built strong relationships over time does make a big difference.
And some of the strikes that you've seen recently in Chile, you probably start from a very different point with respect to where the relationship had been and, and, and sort of the background. So I don't think they'd make a good example for what we are seeing in our case, eh? Now, in the case of Buenaventura, look, we obviously, Buenaventura has done well, you know, since we went in there. I mean, obviously, you know, they've had a good benefit, you know, from metal prices. But also they've increased production significantly in some areas, silver being one of them, from Yumpag.
And what we're seeing is obviously an interest in the prospect of both developing, you know, some of their base metals projects, you know, in the copper space. And we continue to work with them in that space, but we do that, you know, through engaging at the board level and with the management of the company and conveying our views. And I think we're making good progress there, but that belongs to that space, eh?
And then the other thing I would mention, I mean, Buenaventura is about to start production from a new gold operation, San Gabriel, and therefore, you know, will that will hit the market at the right time, probably from the point of view, you know, of the sort of price environment. So it'll be, you know, generating cash from gold and silver at the right time. And on the other hand, we think, you know, we need to or have the opportunity to continue to work on some of the base metals opportunities.
Patrick? Thank you.
Hi, Patrick Jones, JP Morgan. Just maybe two questions. Firstly, on the Los Pelambres side, you mentioned you think that the environmental impact approval could come sometime early next year. Could we see FID on that then sometime in 2027 as well, and then serious CapEx starting to be spent by 2028?
We're still studying that. Mm-hmm. But obviously, that would be something that could be attractive, yeah.
Just on the Antucoya as well, you mentioned the opportunity to potentially have a mill there, and the Hypogene project's obviously one of the bubbles in the chart, and the potential to tie that in potentially with Cachorro. Could you kind of just talk a little bit initially what that could look like? Because I think you still have nearly 20 years of reserve life there at the SX-EW.
Yeah. Yeah. That we have 20 years of the SX-EW. But we think that we could probably use some of the crushing capacity to be able to dedicate that to a separate line, which would include passing sulfides combined with the higher grade sulfides coming from Cachorro to be able to feed a mill line. And the reason being is because in the case of Antucoya, the crushing circuit is very big. It's 100,000 tonne per day.
So it's unusually big for a cathode operation, and therefore, you could have a 30,000-tonne-a-day ball mill, which could eventually complement the configuration and production that we have today and increase the sort of average grade that we get and increase recovery. So this is all, you know, sort of, I would say, blue sky thinking, but that's what it's sort of coming to mind, because Antucoya is closer to Cachorro. I mean, we are closer from the point of view of distance. We're testing some of the more efficient transport alternatives, like road train and eventually some form of rail, like, rail alternative.
But if that becomes attractive, then, you know, we could be able to at least pivot one of these options with Antucoya. Now, timing-wise, you know, we still would have to think that in detail, but remember that Antucoya today is processing 0.3% grade. So if we could —Cachorro has, what, 1.3. So, you know, yeah, it's further down, it's underground, but if we could move some of that, then the grade differential is quite significant. And we've got, you know, the big crushing circuit, which is operating extremely well and very reliably. I mean, we've hit very significant and consistently good rates at Antucoya, slightly beyond capacity now for three years. So that is the sort of functionality that that can provide, huh?
Great. Thank you.
I will now hand over to the moderator if we have questions online.
If you would like to ask a question from the Zoom webinar, please use the "Raise Hand" function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. Once called upon, please unmute your audio to ask your question. If you have joined via a phone line, please press star nine. We will now pause for a moment to allow questions to enter the queue. Our first question comes from William Kane. Please unmute your line and ask your question. William, please go ahead and ask your question.
Go to the next one.
As a reminder for other participants, if you would like to ask a question, please use the "Raise Hand" feature. Alternatively, if you have dialed in, please press star nine to raise your hand, and if you've been invited to ask your question, please unmute your line and ask your question. As we have no further questions, this concludes the Q&A session. I will now hand back to management for closing remarks.
We hand over to Jason for another question.
Yeah, sure. So in the past, we've talked about this giant resource on the other side of the border from Los Pelambres. And a few of us were down in Argentina in December, and Salta seems to be booming with mining projects. So I guess my question is, are you losing people to Argentina?
No, I would say, at this stage.
Not yet?
Well, you know, we work a lot to you know attract and retain you know our talent, and therefore, you know, yeah, we haven't seen that so far, huh? But Pelambres, especially, which is close, you know, to that area, I think has very favorable conditions for work, both in terms of roster, proximity, and the like. So, yeah, and we provide a very challenging and rewarding environment, so we will fight that battle.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. With that, I will hand over to you.
Yeah. So, so thank you very much, for, for coming here and for your questions. I hope that we're able, over the next couple of days, to answer any other residual query. But just to summarize, I think we've released a strong set of financial results. We had a good, year from a financial performance record in EBITDA, and, and we continue to, I think, perform and deliver our strategy. Our projects are going well. You were able to see them, directly in November. Centinela Second Concentrator finished the year with a progress, which is slightly above 70%. So we really look forward to completing those projects, soon, and being able, to increase production by the 30% that we've been working at. So thank you for coming, huh.