Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Hochschild financial presentation, 2025 results. We have very good news today. Let me go to first of all, disclaimer, and that's basically the takeaways. As I said, 2025 has been a very good year with the strongest ever financials. We produced 311,000 ounces. The revenue went up 28%. The EBITDA went up 39%, up to nearly $600 million. Our attributable all-in sustaining cost was $2,138 per ounce. We end up the year with $370 million in cash. Our net debt was $23 million. Dividend is going to be 5p.
We have had a significant amount of resources, 1.7 million ounces gold equivalent, especially at Inmaculada and also at Royropata. What's going on in 2026? I mean, we'll continue developing our projects. Mara Rosa, all the turnaround project is on track. The management transition is also complete. We have a new COO in place, and he's choosing his team in Brazil. Royropata-Mía is on schedule. I mean, we have been working with Ausenco to make sure that the document will be ready in July to be presented to the new government in Peru. As you know, we have elections. We will continue with the non-core assets to be monetized.
A strong ESG metrics continue, especially. I feel very proud of our safety performance. We closed the year with 0.97 frequency rate. Tiernan Gold and Aclara Resources, I mean we did the RTO and Aclara Resources is continuing with the permitting processes in Brazil and in Chile, and also working on the vertical integration. If we go to the next page, two and a half years ago, we said that we'll be focusing in our precious metal assets. The focus for these two and a f years has been in Inmaculada, Mara Rosa, and San José. We said that we will be focused on developing the new two projects in Monte do Carmo that we acquired and Royropata is a brownfield discovery.
delivering on non-core assets that we said that they were non-core and we would do something about it, yeah. I mean, what we have done is monetize Tiernan Gold, Aclara for sure, and Crespo Azuca and Arcata that we sold. Going to the ESG performance, as I said, we feel extremely proud with our safety track record. It's a world-class level achievement. Also on the environmental performance, we are near perfect score. As you can see on the graph below. I mean, we have been always maintaining above 5.5 out of 6. We feel also very proud that we have increased the local workforce. I mean, giving a job to people that lives close to our sites, 66%.
Also in terms of energy, we have been able to pass all the energy contract to renewable. That's very important for us. Finally, we have been included on the FTSE4Good index series, which is also very good for the company. Going to the financials, I would like to introduce Eduardo Noriega that will help with the presentation. Thank you, Eduardo. Go ahead.
Is it bigger?
Thank you.
Thank you and good morning. As Eduardo said, we have a strong set of financial results during 2025, mainly driven by strong metal prices. As you can see, our revenue was more than $1.2 billion. Attributable net profit at $159.6 million. EPS at $0.31. Adjusted EBITDA, very strong as well at $584 million. In terms of revenue, as I said, the revenue was higher, mainly explained by strong metal prices. Sorry. Let me go to the right slide. Thank you. As you can see, gold price was 37% higher than last year, and silver price was 54% higher.
These strong metal price conditions more than offset the challenges that we had in Mara Rosa, which are being resolved. I have to say that in terms of production in 2025, we in Argentina were producing 100% concentrates to benefit from the strong commercial conditions of concentrates compared to Doré. Cost of sales were 12% higher than last year, mainly associated to higher production volumes both at San José and Inmaculada. We also had the fixed costs at San José during the stoppage period and during the ramp-up period. Finally, higher prices had an impact on royalties and workers' profit sharing, mainly in Peru.
In terms of admin expenses, we had higher expenses mainly associated to higher professional fees associated to transactions we closed during the year, mainly the RTO of Tiernan. We also had higher workers' profit sharing associated to higher prices. In others net, we had higher net expenses mainly associated to the elimination of a benefit that we had in Argentina, an export benefit that was eliminated in April 2025, and in 2024 we had it for the full year, explained around $13 million. We also had adjustments to our mine closure provisions for $9 million, aligned with our plans and the execution of the closing plans of our projects. Net interest expenses were higher, mainly associated to two non-cash events.
One, the change in fair value of Monte do Carmo's royalties agreement with Sprott, which had an impact of $7.5 million, and the unrealized fair value losses of Tiernan warrants issued in the capital raise of $7.4 million. As I said, both non-cash effect. The effective tax rate for the period was 39%, but from which, around 6% were represented the Special Mining Tax and the royalties in Peru that, as you know, are calculated as a percentage of our operating margin, operating income, but is booked in the income tax line. We also had withholding taxes of $2 million of that representing a 2% increase in the effective tax rate. Before these impacts, our effective income tax rate would have been 31%.
Finally, under exceptional items, we had a net impact of around $47 million, mainly associated to the reversal of impairments in Aclara, Volcan, and San José. None of our assets have impairments now, and that had a positive impact in the exceptional column of $79 million pre-tax. We also had a negative exceptional impact of $26 million under revenue due to the roll forward of some of the hedges that we had from H2 2025 to H1 2028. That mark-to-market of those hedges passed through the P&L in 2025 under exceptional items.
In terms of cash evolution, our cash increased materially from $97 million to $317 million, mainly driven by the strong cash generation capacity of our Inmaculada mine, $315 million. We had $162 million generated in San José. We used $30 million in Mara Rosa to recover from production challenges. We had $33 million invested in exploration programs, $57 million of corporate expenses. Then in after the blue column, we had taxes paid for $36 million, current maintenance, and closure plans for $34 million. We paid interest net of $15 million. We had a temporary increase in indebtedness of $24 million.
We paid $17 million in dividends, mainly the $10 million final dividend of 2024 paid in June and the $5 million of interim dividend of 2025 paid in September. We had a temporary negative change in working capital of $54 million, mainly associated to our decision to produce more concentrate, which has a higher DPO, and a temporary accumulation of stockpiles in Mara Rosa and Inmaculada as part of our production plans. Monte do Carmo, we invest $30 million, from which $13.5 million is a buy-down option of the Sprott agreement at Monte do Carmo. We also had the early settlement of the deferred consideration at Monte do Carmo of $9.75 million. That's included in the $30 million.
We invested $77 million in Royropata. We made a capital injection in Aclara to retain our 20% share of $8 million. Of course, we executed the RTO of Tiernan, which brought $40 million of additional cash to the group at a consolidated level. In terms of all-in sustaining cost, our all-in sustaining cost was $2,138 per gold equivalent ounce in 2025 as expected, and as guided higher than what the all-in sustaining cost that we had in 2024. If we look at each of the mines, in Inmaculada, we had lower grades, partially offset by higher processed tonnage. We also had the impact of prices in our workers' profit sharing and commercial discounts. No?
In the case of San José, our production plan was in the border areas of the deposit, giving us lower grades also as anticipated. We had the impact again of higher prices in royalties and export taxes, and as I said in the P&L explanation, in 2024, we had the FX export program that was suspended in April 2025. In the case of Mara Rosa, the all-in sustaining cost was a result of lower production volumes and grades and of course, our CapEx that we incurred during the year to address the operational challenges that we had. Capital expenditures, we had $203 million of sustaining CapEx in our three mines.
In Inmaculada, we're including a mine development cost, mainly $80 million, tailings dam expansion of $17 million incurred during the period. We also invested in our reverse osmosis plant to the water, the tailings dam of Inmaculada. In San José, we had mine development cost of $26 million, drilling of $3 million and a mine raise boring for $2 million. In Mara Rosa, we invested in our plant and filter improvements for $16 million, and we also invested at the mine, as you can see in the slide, stripping programs and sustaining CapEx both combined $17 million. In terms of the balance sheet, we have a very strong.
We ended up with a strong balance sheet, with $317 million in cash and net debt of $23 million. We continue delivering deleveraging the company with a net debt to EBITDA ratio at 0.04x . Well below the threshold that we indicated throughout the cycle. The company is well-positioned to invest in our growth projects, Monte do Carmo and Royropata, and as I said before, this strong balance sheet will give us the opportunity to do so. As you are aware, we also announced our dividend policy a couple of years ago, and this is the first year in which we are executing the policy at the variable rate.
Our dividend policy considers distributing between 20%-30% of the attributable cash flow of the company, with a minimum annual dividend of $10 million, subject to have a net debt to EBITDA ratio of below 1.5x. We paid $5 million of interim dividend in October 2025, and we are now declaring a final dividend of $0.05 per share, which accounts for $26 million, taking the total dividend paid for the period to $31 million.
We're showing in this slide the dividend calculation, and as you can see, our total free cash flow is $193 million and the non-attributable piece of that free cash flow mainly associated to Argentina, which also generated a strong cash of $54 million, bringing the attributable free cash flow to $139 million. Back to you, Eduardo, for the strategy section.
Thank you, Eduardo. This is a picture of the Brazilian team. Cassius in the middle. If we go to the next page. This slide is just to remember the strategy that we designed during I mean, back in August 2023. We said that brownfield will be a very important pillar. You know, we believe that is a long-term value. Discovering new resources is where the value, the maximum value is for the mining business. Through brownfield, we extend the life of mine of our existing assets. It's important that also brownfield is very well-focused on mineable resources. I mean, there is this tendency of bringing resources, but at the end of the day, you want very good quality resources. Then the second pillar is the operational efficiency.
Something very important for us is to be on site. I mean, the leadership has to be visiting the sites. We have been doing that for the past two and a half years. Also lean philosophy across the company. Cost efficiencies through programs. Of course, the time to develop the new projects is to know how to develop on time and on budget. ESG world-class safety, as I said, we feel very proud. Water management focus is very important. We implemented a new community approach, and I have to say that we didn't have any blockages or any problem with communities for nearly three years. That's very important. Talent and talent management with very good objectives in place and of course, all our KPIs, ESG KPIs in place for 2030.
Finally, the fourth pillar is the disciplined capital allocation. Funding organic growth through our balance sheet. Of course, pay the debt if we can. Capital returns through our dividend policy. If we do any M&A it has to be value accretive, we have demonstrated in Mara Rosa and also at Monte do Carmo. As I said, brownfield is very important, and we have demonstrated that during 2025 where we have added 1.7 million ounces of gold equivalent. Out of 1.7, 1.1 has been discovered in Royopata. Of course, as you can see, we made in 2024 some projections of resources to be discovered from 2024 to 2030.
Today, at the beginning of 2026, we have 4.5 million ounces in resources, in our base resources. As you can see the performance in Inmaculada, we brought 0.5 million ounces in, as I said, in Royropata 1.1. Also in San José, we have been able to replace partially, I mean, the production. Inmaculada continue being our flagship mine. It's producing above 200,000 ounces per year with very good all-in sustaining cash costs. We continue having a large regional land package with a huge potential. As I said, we have been able to add more resources during 2025. In the last two.
In the last 10 years, we have been able to discover 80 new veins at Inmaculada. We have brought 5.2 million ounces of gold. In 2026, we have plans in the south, east, and north of Inmaculada. We are going to drill nearly 18,000 meters, and we are aiming to bring at least 250,000 ounces. As you can see on the map, there is many places with potential veins that there are still, I mean, that we have still the possibility of discovering them. Going to Royropata. As I said, Royropata is a major brownfield discovery. We have today nearly 3 million ounces of gold equivalent with very good grades. We are talking about, like, 550 grams per ton of silver.
This deposit is most silver. It's, like, 90% silver. The good news is that average width of the veins is, like, 30 meters or more. It's going to be a very productive mine once we put it into production. Today, we have the agreements with the communities. That's very good, and we did that in 2024, all the easements. We are working with Ausenco and also with Stantec as a peer reviewer to present to the Peruvian government a very solid and I mean very solid and very well-done technical document to be evaluated by the new government. We expect to file this in August 2026 once we have the elections, and to be approved a year after.
As I said, we have added 1 million ounces in Royropata. The good thing here is that we have all these. I mean, all this discovery is around here, and we have all these new veins, you know, continuation of the current veins that could be at more resources. At the end of the day, Royropata could become a massive deposit, you know, that it will bring a very profitable production to the company from 2028 onwards. Also at the regional level, you can see here we have Inmaculada. In the south, Pallancata and Selene. We have different targets. Condorillo. We have Minascucho in Inmaculada. We have Saycata and Gaby Marina close to Selene.
There is a lot of regional potential to bring new deposits with a potential of 3-5 million ounces of gold equivalent. That's this land package has a huge value in terms of our strategic brownfield strategy. Go to Mara Rosa. Mara Rosa is an open pit gold mine, as you know. We have 1 million ounces resource. We have been able, during 2025 and 2026, to reorganize and to stabilize the output. Ramping up to full production, it will be in H1 2026 once we have the cyanide in place. I have to announce that today, the crushing, milling and filtering plant is performing at nameplate capacity. The cyanide is going to give us flexibility, but I mean, the capacity is already reached.
The dry stack, which is a difficult thing to do in a rainy environment, is totally controlled. Here we have some details of everything we have done. I would say that the only thing pending is the overlap of the contractors, the mine contractors. We have done a tender, and we have selected Fagundes. Fagundes is one of the best Brazilian contractors in the whole country. We have a plan to the overlap between R&D and Fagundes from now until July, more or less, yeah? From July onwards, we'll have mine output of, let's say, 80,000 tons, and that will give us the opportunity to push back the mine and also to make available all the ore, you know, to pass through the material through the plant.
As you can see, production KPIs evolution, they're extremely positive. You know, here is December and you have February, and everything has increased. You know, the crushing, milling, and also filtering are above, I mean, these levels in November, December, that they were very low. Better than text and voice is pictures, and you have the mine here. I mean, you have the filters working. This is the dry stack. Even in the rainy season, you see that it's totally compacted and ready. This is the thickener. You know, the fabrication, production of the walls and also the civil installation on site. Also you have some roofs that we have installed around the filtering plant to make sure that we have the area protected during the rain.
Also at Mara Rosa, we have still a lot of potential on brownfield exploration, and we are drilling. As you can see, Posse is here. We have all this area for possible incorporation. At the end of the day, the strategy is the same. I mean, we would like to add at least a year of resources every single year. In that sense, we can maintain 1 million ounces in terms of resource base, producing like 100,000. Well, let's say 80,000, between 80,000 and 90,000 ounces per year. Monte do Carmo, you remember that we acquired this project. We paid $60 million. It's located in Tocantins, that's north of Goiás, close to Mara Rosa.
I mean, it's fully permitted, and today what we are doing is a gap analysis to make sure that all engineering is correct. We are completing the engineering on the, I would say, at the end of May. We will be trying to present an economic case in June 30. That will be around June 30. That's our objective. Good news is that we have repeated all the metallurgical tests, and we got 94% recovery, which is extremely high. That's very good news. All the geotechnical studies are nearly finished to make sure that the pit is stable and everything. Transmission line has already the permit and is ready for construction. I mean, we will update the economics in mid-2026.
We aim to start production in 2028, if we start construction on July 2026. San José is a mine that commenced in 2007, back in 2007, a year after I joined Hochschild. 2025 production has been very good, 120,000 ounces. We believe that this year is going to be more or less the same. During 2025, we have been implementing cost-effective measures at the whole process. I mean, we are trying to contain costs as low as possible in an environment which is difficult.
As you know, Argentina has a lot of inflation during 2025, worse even before. I mean, the team is working there, the grades are there is a huge cash generation in San José, which is very positive for us. In terms of exploration, San José still has a lot of potential, not only on the mine area, but also on the district. This is Cerro Negro and this is San José, so there is a lot of mining properties that we own, and we are exploring with new technology. Also in Santa Cruz Province, we are mapping and sampling couple of projects that could be, you know, it could be a new future discovery.
Well, in terms of of valuation, I have to say that once Mara Rosa turnaround is nearly finished, we continue having a very strong Inmaculada performance. We are one of the few mining companies that have two projects, developing projects that, I mean, could represent an increase in production of 60%. It could be, it could mean that Hochschild Mining could reach 500,000 ounces of production in 2028. I believe that there is still a very important valuation opportunity for investors. That's very good news for us, you know, for shareholders also. I believe that the performance of our share is being very impressive, and I am very proud of the team, the work that they have done.
Finally, as a conclusion, 2025 has been a very strong year in terms of financials. It's important not only the financial, but also the ESG performance, you see, we continue having a world-class performance on safety and environment, and also I feel extremely proud of the community relations situation. We have a great team in place that they have changed the way we relate with communities. Also, we have executed the turnaround on Mara Rosa. The management transition is in place. I feel very confident with the actual mining management team. Inmaculada continue having a very solid performance. Tiernan is already listed on the TSX, and it has its own future from now on, and also $31 million on dividends. The future is, of course, completing a Monte do Carmo economic assessment and starting construction.
A brownfield program to continue delivering new resources to extend life of mine. Royropata, as you can see, that's the most important projects that we have at Hochschild, 3 million ounces, most of it silver. Huge veins, a continuation. You know, it seems like a very, very good deposit. We will continue with disciplined capital allocation to make sure that money is well-spent. Of course, the investment in Tiernan and Aclara has become a value of $300 million+, which is very good for the company. I have to say that two and a half years ago, we said that we will be focused on core assets and delivering profitable growth. Today, we feel very proud that we have accomplished our promise. Thank you very much. Now questions. Marina, or.
Good morning. Thanks for the presentation. It's Marina Calero from RBC. I have a couple of questions on my side. Royropata has huge exploration potential. Would you consider expanding the footprint of the operation and perhaps expand a bit the processing plant?
It's not in our plans, and I can tell you why. The environmental permit that we are presenting to the government does not include any expansion at the plant. I mean, we believe that 3,000 tons capacity we could achieve 150,000 ounces per year. I mean, we feel that it would be a mine with 3 million ounces that could last for 15-20 years, and we feel quite comfortable with the recoveries and with the actual flotation process. It's something that we could evaluate later, but it would mean that we would have a new environmental permit in order to increase the capacity. Why I mean, the question is why we didn't include the plant. Well, because that would mean a much more complicated environmental study.
We prefer just to do it only at the mine level to make sure that we get the permit as soon as possible.
Perfect. Thank you. My second question is on taxes. Your taxes in the cash flow statement this year were much lower than the P&L.
Mm-hmm.
Should we expect a catch-up next year?
Thank you, Marina. Yes. As you know, in both Peru and Argentina, you pay advanced payments on taxes, and then once you have based on the previous year.
Tax rate or tax estimation. No? The results of the previous year, in this case, 2024. After you complete all your prepayments, then you do a final calculation, and in March, April, you complete the payment for the total calculation of that period. There may be a regularization of that in 2026. That will also happen in 2026. In 2026, rate will be calculated based on taxes. Prepayments are based on 2025. If prices stay as they are today, which are higher than the average price of 2020, 2024, we will see a catch-up for 2020 in 2027 for the 2026 calculation. Yes.
Thank you. Morning. Ian Rossouw from Barclays. A couple of questions. Just firstly on Royropata. You sort of highlighted the Peru elections later this year. What do you see the risks of timelines slipping further for production in 2028, which I guess you still show on this presentation? And then on the slide, you show the 2023 economics and sort of CapEx and OpEx. Do you have any updated estimates for us for that at this stage? And then maybe the same for Monte do Carmo. I know you'll give us the final numbers and economics in the middle of the year, but any indications of what we could look for in terms of CapEx and OpEx?
Just sort of more broadly on exploration, you've previously talked about adding ounces at sort of grades higher or similar to what you currently have. Obviously, with the raising of your reserve and resource pricing in your calculations, just how should we think about this? Do you still, I guess, target that and, yeah, just how we should think about the sort of grades going forward.
Well, let me start remembering the questions. First of all is the elections. Let me say that today the polls shows that there are two strong candidates. One is Keiko Fujimori, and the other one is López Aliaga. They are both right wings, and they are around 10%. There is a limit of 5%, you know, to pass through to the Congress threshold. It seems like, I mean, elections are going good. I have to say that Hochschild has been working in Peru for 100 years, and we have been working from the military governments, you know, to anything. We know how to work in Peru.
Related to the permit at Royropata permit, I have to say that Senace, which is the official government agency for permits, is a very technical entity. I don't expect any changes apart from the president of Senace, you know. I mean, we have been working with them during the process. We have very good relationship with them. I don't expect any, I mean, risk at this point in time, yeah. Of course, you never know what could happen in the election is five to six weeks away. Let's see what happen. What was the-
The other one was exploration and grades. Where is-
No, it was another question before.
CapEx and OpEx at,
CapEx and OpEx on Royropata.
... at Royropata.
Yeah. I mean, we don't have a final number, but I would say that between the two projects, we will be thinking of around $500 million, yeah, in CapEx. But that's only, I mean, $300 million for Monte do Carmo, $200 million for Royropata. And the, I mean, the final numbers is really will depends on the prices that you would use. Of course, at current prices, at spot prices, it will be an incredible result. You know, I expect to have extremely profitable projects if we keep prices at the spot level, yeah. In terms of reserves, I can give you that question.
Sure, Eduardo. The approach that we're taking is, first of all, brownfield exploration is our main priority in terms of capital allocations. We are committed to keep adding value to our shareholders through explorations. We're investing around $38 million in exploration this year. The approach that we have taken towards how to cut our resources and reserves at current market, we adjusted our cutoff prices and the cutoff grades. As a result of that, we are seeing more resources coming in, and with the main objective to design our mine plans to maximize net NPV for each of our assets. That is what we're doing. The additional resources that Eduardo announced do not take...
It's new material. No, it's not material that have been incorporated because of that factor. This is in addition to what we announced.
Sorry, just to follow up on the Royropata risks of the project dragging into 2029. I guess on that slide, you still showed first production 2028.
No, I would try. I mean, we'll do our best to try to get some production out of 2028. That's the plan. I mean, if we get the permit, I mean, the approval of the environmental permit in 2027, it will not take more than a year to get the operational permits.
I have to say also that we are looking at opportunities, you know, to see if we can start Royropata with current resources. You know, the prices are too high today, so we are evaluating, you know, that possibility. That could bring some production before, you know. I don't expect any delay on Royropata.
Great. Thank you.
Hi.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Felicity Robson, Bank of America. Just following up on taxes. The effective tax rate was 39%, driven by royalties and withholding taxes. How do you see that developing this year, and especially the impact of Peru that is driving that as well?
Certainly. I mean, the statutory tax rate, the average statutory tax rate for income tax is around 31, 32%. No? In addition to that, we need to model the Special Mining Tax and royalties in Peru, and that will depend heavily on prices and operating margin, as I explained before. If prices are similar to what we had in 2020, 2025, the 6% impact on incremental effective tax rate should remain the same. If prices go up, that percentage could also go up. No? It depends on gold and silver prices mainly.
Hi, I'm Rosie from JPMorgan.
Hello.
I have one question on the funding for Monte do Carmo project. You're probably going to generate like large free cash flow going forward from operations. I'm wondering, at the current plan, are you planning to fund the development using your free cash flow generations or by more debt?
Thank you. Thank you, Rosie. No, the current plan is to fund the construction of Monte do Carmo and Royropata with our cash generation, our own cash generation. Also in this plan, we're not considering raising more debt for those purposes.
One more.
Just to follow up on your comment about non-core assets and obviously sort of shifting them off the balance sheet. That $300 million obviously a nice number in Aclara's share price have rallied significantly. I mean, how should we think about this going forward? Are you happy with that holding? Could that help to fund some of these projects?
Well, it's a good problem to have. Yeah, that's the truth. We haven't decided yet about Aclara. I mean, I believe that Aclara will continue with construction and everything. Yeah. We have been extremely happy with the value. To tell you the truth, we haven't decided yet if we will continue having those shares or we'll do something about it.
If there's a call, cash call for them to fund some of their projects, would you maintain or?
I mean, this year, yeah, we are planning to do so, yeah, for a very small amount. I mean, in case that it would be something bigger, I mean, it's something that I mean, at the end of the day, it's a board of directors' decision. Yeah. It's not in our plan.
Thank you.
We want to be focused on the core business.
Makes sense. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Now go to questions from the conference call. As a reminder to people, if they'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your keypad. Star one on your keypad if you'd like to ask a question. Over to you.
Sure. The first question comes from the line of Robert Ponti calling from SMC. Please go ahead.
Oh, hi. It's Robert Ponti from Cormark Capital. Thank you for taking the question. Just was looking at Mara Rosa and wanted to know again, now that you've changed sort of, you know, everything from the filtering and again the whole process there, how do you want us to think about peak sort of milling rates? I mean, if we look back in your peak quarters, sort of, you know, 4Q24 and 1Q25, we're running around, you know, 7,000, close to, you know, 6,500, 7,000 tons per day. What in the current setup, what would you want us to think about as the peak throughput rate on the milling side?
Well, I would say that it would be between 7,000 and 8,000 tons per day.
Okay. Remind us again, now that you've kind of changed the whole process, is the grade profile still the same as initially, that we get back to reserve grade 1.1 at some point?
Yes. I believe that the grade is still the same. Yeah. The grades of deposit are still there and that has not changed. Same as we had before.
Got you.
Remember that.
And then I-
Sorry. Remember that, I mean, the strategy in Mara Rosa is to try to treat the highest possible grade during the first years, and then once you have the ore available on the stockpiles, treat the medium grade after.
Got you. Okay. In terms of again the progression that you show us on the slide 22 of the presentation is quite impressive from November December now to February kind of especially on the crushing and milling side. Can we kind of sort of draw a line and that it'll continue that way? You know March is then higher again and then April a bit higher. You know we kind of Yeah I mean how do you want us to think about the progression over the year just of the plant throughput?
No, I mean, the idea is once we have the thickener in place, I expect to have a total capacity of at least 7,000 tons per day in the milling and at the crushing, milling, and filtering process. That would be the objective.
Okay.
Yeah. As I said, I mean, the bottleneck today is the mine. It's not the process. I mean, if we receive 7,000 tons per day from the mine of high grade, we will be able to do it.
Got you. The mine bottleneck, where are we on that? Shall we think about that?
Well, as I said, I mean, we are not very happy with the actual contractor, and we launched a tender back at the beginning of this year. We have already selected Fagundes, which is a very good contractor. The idea is to overlap these two contractors during the next two, three months and try to reach 80,000 tons per day, which will give us at least 8,000-9,000 tons of ore per day.
How many tons per day are you right now?
We are at 6,000, 5,000, depends on the day, yeah? High grade is like 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, depends on the day. Yeah, I mean, it's totally reflected on.
Okay.
As you can see the February, I mean, we have 5.9, 5.4, 5.7. So that represents the mine throughput. Because every single ore that is coming from the mine pass through the plant. So that would be the average today.
Got it.
I would say 5.5.
When we have a contractor, when will the mining rates go up? Is it second quarter, third quarter?
No, I would say second quarter for sure.
First quarter?
Second quarter for sure because we need to recover. You know, January and February, that has been a bit lower. Also affected by the rainy season. I mean, rainy season is complicated to mine on open pits, especially in this area of the world that it rains a lot.
The next question comes from the line of Richard Hatch from Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Morning, thanks for the call. Just a few questions. The first one is just following up just to clarify on Mara Rosa. So the 7,000 tons per day, is that to assume on a... What availability rate do we have to adjust that for? Because I guess if I just multiply that by 365 and 24 hours, that gets me to about 2.6 million tons throughput. Is that the right number to still think, be thinking about, or do we need to adjust that a bit lower? That's the first one.
Could you repeat the numbers because I'm a bit lost?
Yeah, I mean, I work it out on my numbers. It's about 2.6 million tons a year of plant throughput.
Yep.
On those assumptions. Is that the right number to be thinking about?
It is the right number. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.
I mean.
Thank you.
The actual capacity of the plant is like 2.5 million ounces. I mean, 2.5 million tons. Sorry. That's what we aim-
Okay.
to have also in Monte do Carmo, 2.5 million tons per year.
Okay. Thank you. Second one is just on Royropata. Just to clarify, am I right in hearing you say that the CapEx for that project is $200 million? If so, can you just help me understand that? Because I kind of thought it would be lower just based on just development cost of development because you've got the plant there already. What am I missing?
I mean, $200 million is an estimation, you know. We haven't completed yet the detailed engineering at the mine site. It could be a little bit less. The thing is that we need to increase capacity at the tailings dam. I mean, you could consider there are like $30-$40 million. Mine developments, we need to develop all these veins, you know. That's a lot of meters. We need to put in place all the ventilation, electrical infrastructure, water pumping, new mining portals, new stockpiles. I mean, there are many components. That would be the amount of components that we need to develop, you know.
I estimate that it could be between $150 million and $200 million.
Okay. That's very helpful. Just a couple of questions on the financials for Eduardo Noriega. Just the first one. I know you've given some color on cash tax for 2026, but can you give us a steer as to how much cash tax we need to be putting into our model for 2026, please? That's the first one.
Thank you. Thank you, Richard. I think a good estimation would be it's the difference between what you have in the P&L with what you have in the cash flow. Around, yeah, $90 million.
$90 million cash tax for 2026?
Yes.
Okay.
So-
The last one is just on mine closure costs. I just note some of these other costs have started to creep up, like your mine closure costs and such like. Is that just a function of inflation and we should just increase them and push them forward?
Thank you. Thank you, Richard, for that question again. Those increases have to do mainly with projects that are being closed now, mainly Ares and Sipán and Selene. It's the change in estimates is mainly a result of new information from engineering works that are being performed to close definitely those components that we're currently working on. That's the main factor. There is also a component of inflation in that, but I would say it's not the majority of the impact. It's mainly the first one.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We're going to now move to the questions from the webcast, and Charlie's going to facilitate those.
Okay.
Thank you very much. The first question is why did shareholders not get the Tiernan Gold shares distributed out, as was the case with Aclara?
Thank you, Charlie. First of all, Aclara is a different type of project, no? It's a rare earth project in a company that is mainly a precious metal producer. The decision for listing Aclara separately and giving and declaring a dividend in specie to our shareholders is for them to decide if they want to stay or sell their position. We actually saw some flow back after that transaction was executed. In the case of Tiernan, Volcan is a gold project that has been with us for a long period of time. It's a project that has a huge potential with more than 11 million ounces of gold underground in a jurisdiction like Chile that is looking better every day, you know.
With a new President Kast and his policies to promote investment, especially in the northern part of the country, to ensure there is water availability to our projects. It's a project that is becoming every time more interesting. We as a company are keeping around 79%, non-dilutive, sorry, 69% non-dilutive share and that we are keeping it with us, and we are actually providing a lot of support of the Tiernan team on different aspects in the region. It makes sense for us to keep the Volcan project being a precious metal and with all the optionality that it brings to Hochschild shareholders and the synergies that there are available between Tiernan and Hochschild Mining.
Thank you, Charlie.
Okay. Thank you. The second question is, are the lower grades at Inmaculada in 2025 transitory, i.e., temporary?
In 2026?
2025.
No. I mean that there is effect, you know, on prices for sure that cut-off grades has changed a little bit the grades. I mean, we will try to keep the current grades, you know, onwards, you know, in the next years.
Thank you very much. There's no more from the webcast.
Okay. Thank you. That's it.
Okay. Hand back to yourselves for closing remarks.
Well, I mean, I already said that I believe that we have presented a very good set of results. That based on the Mara Rosa turnaround and the strong performance of Inmaculada and the fact that we have these two projects in the pipeline, there is still a very good opportunity for valuation for Hochschild. Yeah. I have to say that I mean, we as a team feel extremely proud of what we have done in 2025. It is in line with what we decided as our strategy 2.5 years ago to be focused on the core business and of course delivering profitable growth. Thank you.