Good morning, welcome to Southern Copper Corporation's Q1 2023 results conference call. With us this morning, we have Southern Copper Corporation's Mr. Raul Jacob, Vice President, Finance, Treasurer, and CFO, who will discuss the results of the company for the Q1 2023, as well as answer any questions that you may have. The information discussed on today's call may include forward-looking statements regarding the company's results and prospects, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially, and the company cautions not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Southern Copper Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. All results are expressed in full US GAAP. Now I will pass the call on to Mr. Raul Jacob.
Thank you very much, Carmen. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Southern Copper's Q3 2023 results conference call. In today's call, we will begin with an update on our view of the copper market and then review Southern Copper's key results related to production, sales, operating costs, financial results, expansion projects, and environmental, social, and governance. After this, we will open the session for questions. At today's conference, I'm joined by Mr. Oscar Gonzalez Rocha, CEO of Southern Copper and board member, as well as Mr. Leonardo Contreras, also a board member. Let's focus now on the copper market. In the Q1 of this year, the London Metal Exchange copper price decreased by 11% from the average of $4.53 per pound that we had in the Q1 of 2022.
The average price has been $4.05 this past quarter. The price reduction, which is slightly lower as we speak now, reflects concerns about a possible recession in the U.S. and Europe this has been partially offset by the good news on China's economy. Current copper prices are, I say, at around $3.90 per pound. We believe the prices are being affected by the following factors. One is the reduction in global inflation, which may slow down or even stop interest rates, the interest rate hike cycle led by the Fed and the ECB. The bouncing back of the Chinese economy after its openness after the COVID strong COVID measures that they had.
China's GDP has been growing at 4.5%, which is slightly higher than the expected 4% that was mentioned by the major companies that follow the Chinese economy. We do have some uncertainty regarding future production growth in Chile and Peru. These two countries together represent about 40% of the global supply. Chile recently reported that copper production declined in the Q1 of this year of about 4%. Considering the, how demand and supply are evolving, the most relevant market intelligence houses for the copper market are currently expecting a market imbalance or a small deficit of about 100,000 tons for this year.
This assumes a growth in demand between 2% and 2.5%, and lower than expected supply growth, estimated now between 1.5% and 2%. This is basically due to the Q1 stoppages that we had in South America. Inventories are still very low, at about 411,000 tons as of March 31st. These are one of the lowest marks since 2005. It is important to emphasize that copper plays a leading role in the global shift to clean energy, which correlates positively with our assertion that the underlying demand for copper will be strong in the long term. In this scenario, we believe the current cycle of low prices will be short-lived. Let's look at Southern Copper's production for the past quarter.
Copper represented 77% of our sales in the Q1 of 2023. SCC's copper production registered an increase of 4% in the Q1 in a quarter-on-quarter terms to stand at 223,272 tons. Our quarterly results reflects a 16% increase in production in Peru, mainly from the Cuajone operation that grew 48.5%. This was basically the result of much more mineral production in Cuajone. As you may recall, this operation was affected by an illegal stoppage in the first and Q2s of 2022. Coming back to operation and operating at full capacity now, Cuajone had much more mineral production and better ore grades and recoveries.
That certainly helped this quarter's production. In the case of the Mexican operations, we had a drop in production of 2.4%, mainly coming from La Caridad, whose production decreased by 11% due to a temporary lower ore grade. For 2023, we expect to produce 940,000 tons of copper, an increase of 5% over the 2022's final print. This growth will unfold as we have the Peruvian production at full speed, which coupled with new production in our Mexican operations through our Pilares and Buenavista zinc concentrator projects. For molybdenum, it represented 11% of the company's sales value in the Q1 of this year and is currently our first by-product.
Molybdenum prices averaged $32 per pound in the quarter compared to the $19 that they averaged in the Q1 of 2022. This represents an increase in price of 69%. Molybdenum production decreased by 9% in the Q1 of this year, this was mainly driven by a drop in production at the Toquepala mine due to lower ore grades. These results were partially offset by higher production at Cuajone, which increased its molybdenum production by 67%, and La Caridad, which increased its molybdenum production by 5%. These mines had higher ore grades. In the case of Cuajone, obviously more volume as well. A better recoveries for Cuajone.
As you know, molybdenum is primarily used to produce special alloys for stainless steel that require significant levels of hardness and resistance to corrosion and heat. New uses for this metal are associated with lubricants, sulfur filtering of heavy oils, and shale gas production. Silver represented 4% of our sales value in the Q1 of 2023, with an average price of $20.53 per ounce in the quarter. This reflected a decrease of 6% in silver price. Silver is currently our second by-product. Mine silver production increased by 3% in the Q1 of this year after production rose at Cuajone and Toquepala. This was partially offset by a decrease in production at the Mexican operations.
Refined silver production fell by 12% quarter-over-quarter, mainly driven by a drop in production at our IMMSA refinery due to a temporary slowdown in purchases of third-party material. For zinc, it represented 3% of our sales value in the Q1 of 2023, with an average price of $1.42 per pound in the quarter. This represents a decrease with regard to the Q1s of 2022 figure. Zinc mine production increased by 2% quarter-on-quarter and total 15,075 tons. This was driven primarily by an increase in production at the Santa Barbara and San Martin mines. Refined zinc production increased by 11% in the Q1 of this year.
For 2023, we expect to produce 116,000 tons of zinc, which represents an increase of 94% over the 2022 production level. This growth will be driven by the production and start-up of the Buenavista zinc operations that should contribute this year with 62,000 tons of more zinc production and by the recovery of the IMMSA mines production, where better ore grade areas has been identified. For next year and on, we expect to produce over 200,000 tons of zinc per year. Financial results. For the Q1 of 2023, sales were $2.8 billion. This is $30 million higher than sales for the Q1 of 2022.
Expansion was primarily fueled by an increase in the sales volume of copper that grew by 10%, silver grew 15%, and zinc 6%. This was partially offset by a decrease in the sales volume of molybdenum that decreased by 8% in sales. Metal prices fell for most of our products, with the exception of molybdenum that increased, as I mentioned, by 69%. Our total operating costs and expenses increased by $146 million or 11% when compared to the Q1 of 2022. Main cost increments has been in inventory consumption, repair materials, explosives, reagents, sales expenses, diesel and fuel, and operations contractors. These cost increases were partially compensated by exchange rate differences, lower purchased copper, and other factors.
When looking at our costs this past quarter, please keep in mind the following events. The Cuajone mine illegal stoppage affected our Q1 production and cost. The Russian invasion to Ukraine started in February of last year, had an inflationary impact on cost that was mainly reflected after the Q1 of last year in the company's results. The Q1 adjusted EBITDA was $1,568 million, which represented a decrease of 7% with regard to the $1,678 million registered in the Q1 of 2022. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 56% in the Q1 of this year versus 61% in the Q1 of 2022.
Operating cash cost per pound of copper before by-product credits was $2.09 per pound in the Q1 of this year. That is $0.051 higher than the value for the Q4 of 2022. This 2% increase in operating cash costs before credits is a result of higher cost per pound from production, partially compensated by lower treatment and refining charges, lower administrative expenses, and higher premiums on refined copper sales. Regarding by-products, we had a total credit of $631 million or $1.33 per pound in the Q1 of this year. These figures represent a 16.3% decrease when compared with the credit of $806 million or $1.59 per pound that we had in the Q4 of last year.
Total credits has increased for zinc and silver and decreased for molybdenum significantly and sulfuric acid. Let me point out that we had an adjustment, a negative adjustment on open sales of molybdenum this past quarter of $265 million. That was compared to a positive adjustment on open sales at the closing of the Q4 of $141 million. That is a main event that obviously affected our by-product revenues in the in this past quarter vis-à-vis the Q4 of last year. Southern Copper operating cash costs, including the benefit of by-product credits, was $0.75 per pound in the Q1 of this year.
This cash cost was $0.31 higher than the cash cost of $0.44 that we had in the Q4 of 2022. Of this increase, as I mentioned already, $0.05 came from higher cost per pound, mainly due to lower volume, and $0.26 came from lower by-product sales, resulting, as I mentioned, from lower prices of silver and zinc and the very significant open sales adjustment, negative adjustment that we had from molybdenum sales in this Q1. Our net income in the Q1 of this year was $813 million, which represented a 4% increase when compared to the $784 million registered in the Q1 of 2022.
The net income margin in the Q1 of this year was 29% versus 28% in the Q1 of 2022. Cash flow from operating activities in the Q1 was $1,185 million, which represented an increase of 44% over the $821 million posted in the Q1 of 2022, and an increase of 10% over the $1,082 million posted in the Q4 of last year. For capital investments, our current capital investment program for this decade exceeds $15 billion and includes investment in Buenavista Zinc, Pilares, El Pilar, and El Arco projects in Mexico, and in the Tia Maria, Los Chancas, and Michiquillay projects in Peru. This capital forecast includes several infrastructure investments, including key investments to bolster the competitiveness of El Arco project.
For the Mexican projects, let me zinc concentrator in Sonora. As I said, this is a project located in the Buenavista deposit. We're building a new concentrator for zinc, and we are expecting this production facility to produce or to add 100,000 tons of zinc and 20,000 tons of copper capacities per year. When operating, this facility will double the company's zinc production capacity and provide more than 2,000 operational jobs. Currently, the capital budget for the project is $416 million, most of which has already been invested, and we are about to initiate operations this quarter, this Q2. For Pilares, also located in Sonora, this is a former or a brownfield mine that we acquired a few years back.
It's located 6 km away from La Caridad. The project consists of an open pit mine operation with annual production capacity of 35,000 tons of copper in concentrate. The Pilares budget is $176 million, of which $114 million has been invested. The project is currently operating and delivering copper mineral oxide to SXEW facilities of the Caridad operation, and we expect to produce mineral for the Caridad concentrator at full capacity through the Q2 of this year. El Pilar, also in Sonora, this is a copper greenfield project which is strategically located 45 km away from the Buenavista mine. We anticipate that El Pilar will operate as a conventional open pit mine with annual production capacity of 36,000 tons of copper cathodes. This operation will use highly cost-efficient and environmentally friendly SXEW technology.
The budget for Pilares is $310 million. The results from the experimental tests in the leaching process for Pilares have confirmed adequate levels of copper recovery. Basic engineering study is finished, and the company continues to develop the project and engage in on-site environmental activities. The SXEW plan detailed engineering is being developed on an ongoing basis, and we expect production to begin in 2025, and mine life is estimated at 13 years. For El Arco, located in the Baja California Peninsula, this is a world-class copper deposit, located in the central part of the Baja California Peninsula. The project includes an open pit mine combining concentrator and SXEW operations. Annual production is expected to total 190,000 tons of copper and 105,000 ounces of gold.
As of March 31st, the company has completed the environmental baseline study for the mine and industrial facilities and is reviewing basic engineering analysis to request environmental impact permits. For the Peruvian projects, we have the Tia Maria project located in the Arequipa region in Peru. This is a project that will use a state-of-the-art SXEW technology with the highest international environmental standards to produce 120,000 tons of refined copper cathodes per year. The estimated capital budget for the project is $1.4 billion. In the case of Los Chancas, also in Peru, it's a project located in the Apurímac region in Peru. This greenfield project located, as I said, in Apurímac, it's a copper and molybdenum porphyry deposit.
The Los Chancas project envisions an open pit mine with a combined operation of concentrator and SXEW processes to produce 130,000 tons of copper and 7,500 tons of molybdenum annually. The estimated capital investment is $2.6 billion, and the project is expected to begin operating in 2030. As of March of this year, part of the project, the project's land continued to be occupied by illegal miners, 70 of whom have been regularly register their stakes in the Integral Registries of Mining Formalization, or REINFO as it is known in Spanish. The company has requested, and the authority has ordered the exclusion of these 70 informal miners from the REINFO registry so that they are now all illegal miners.
The company has also filed criminal complaints and other legal remedies to physically expel illegal miners from the project. Michiquillay project. In June 2018, Southern Copper signed a contract for the acquisition of the Michiquillay project in Cajamarca in Peru. Michiquillay is a world-class mining project with inferred mineral resources of 2.2-2.3 billion tons with an estimated copper grade of 0.42. When developed, we expect Michiquillay to produce 225,000 tons of copper per year, along with byproducts of molybdenum, gold, and silver. It will have an initial mine life of more than 25 years and a competitive cash cost. We estimate an investment of approximately $2.5 billion that will be required, and expect to initiate production by 2030.
In the Q4 of 2022, the company informed the Ministry of Energy and Mines that it had begun exploration activities and initiated an assessment of the existing mineral resource at depth. In 2023, in accordance with our social agreements with the Michiquillay and La Encañada communities, the company has hired unskilled labor and is paying for the use of surface land. We're supporting social programs in both communities as we roll out exploration activities. Environmental, social, and governance investment. SCC is committed to improving its ESG record by adopting best practices and informing the investment committee and other stakeholders about our progress in these matters. This year, Grupo México will present edition number 15 of the Sustainable Development Report, which contains disaggregated information from Southern Copper Corporation and reaffirms our commitment to transparency and ongoing improvement.
In 2022, we have placed particular importance on updating our strategy for climate change, which includes targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This year's report also provides information on our program and objectives with regard to promoting diversity and inclusion, both inside the company and within the communities close to our operations. Excuse me for a minute, for a sec, please. Sustainable development committee. In 2022, Southern Copper Corporation set up a sustainable development committee, which is precise by an independent director. This committee's main objective is to support SCC's board of directors in its endeavors to supervise management of risks and opportunities in the environment, in the ambit of environmental, safety and health, community development, human rights, and corporate governance.
The committee meets every quarter and has assessed diverse aspects of the company's ESG trajectory, including adhesion to international agreements and management of water and mineral waste. The sustainable development committee meets third session, address climate change as well as diversity and inclusion, and identify opportunities on the corporate governance front. Third-party certification. In recognition of our commitment to implement best environmental, social, and corporate governance practices, our Buenavista del Cobre mine, located in Mexico, in Sonora, has obtained certification for three important ISO, International Organization for Standardization, standards: ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO 14001 for environmental management, and ISO 45001 for occupational safety and health management. These certificates are further proof of our commitment to quality, the environment, and occupational safety and health of our employees. Occupational safety and health. At Southern Copper's Corporation, our employees' safety is our priority.
Our unit in Ilo, located in Moquegua, in the Moquegua region in Peru, has earned first place in the smelter and refinery category of the 26th national competition for mining safety, organized by the Peruvian Institute of Mining Safety. This distinction recognizes SCC's performance with regard to indicators of our employees' occupational safety and health, and is a reflection of our ongoing commitment to ensuring the sustainability of our operations. Biodiversity. In March 2023, Environmental Management Unit at Buenavista del Cobre obtained certification from the Wildlife Habitat Council in recognition for our contributions to efforts to prevent extinction of the Mexican gray wolf. Thanks to these actions, populations of this species, which was on the brink of extinction in the wild, has multiplied in their natural habitat in Mexico.
Going forward, we will continue to work side by side with society and authorities to serve the common good in the regions in which we operate. Community development. At SCC, we continue to strengthen our community development model and currently operate 29 community centers that provide services to 350,000 people a year in Mexico and Peru. These efforts positively impact the quality of life of the residents in the communities where we work. Recently, we renovated two community centers called Casa Grande in Santa Barbara, Chihuahua, and Charcas in San Luis Potosí. These facilities will serve as an additional 21,000 people. Diversity and inclusion. At SCC, we're convinced that valuing diversity, preventing discrimination, and promoting openness to different ways of thinking are fundamental in all efforts to develop inclusive workplace environments that promote the internal development of our employees and stakeholders.
We're committed to driving the agenda for diversity and inclusion transversally throughout the company and in the communities around our operations. Our results in 2022 reflect the fruit of our efforts, with a 16% increase in the number of women employed by SCC. Dividend announcement. Regarding dividends, as you know, it is the company policy to review our cash position, expected cash flow generation from operations, capital investment plans, and other financial needs at each board meeting to determine the appropriate quarterly dividend. Accordingly, as announced to the market on April 20, the board of directors authorized a cash dividend of $1 per share of common stock payable on May 23, to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 9, 2023. Ladies and gentlemen, with these comments, we would like to end up our presentation today.
Thank you very much for joining us, and we would like now to open the forum for questions.
Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw the question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Carlos de Alba with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.
Yeah, good morning, Raul, and everyone. Thank you for the call. Raul, would you please comment on how you see costs trending in the coming quarters? Clearly the industry is facing a lot of cost pressures, but, you know, Southern Copper has always been a low cost producer. We've seen recent pressures of, obviously affecting the company, but, you know, any guidance would be very interesting to hear. My second question is regarding growth, specifically wondering about Los Chancas. How quickly you can solve the situation there?
We heard what you said, that you got positive court rulings, but, you know, how quickly can you restart exploration or the works that you were doing at Los Chancas if you had to stop them? Combined with this, given the attractive profile of grow-organic growth that you have, but with some of the challenges regarding the timing to execute on those, would the company consider M&A opportunities? You've heard obviously there is a couple of recent transactions, where copper assets have been in focus.
I wonder to what extent the company will have appetite for a large, relatively large medium acquisition in copper, given that so far the company has focused on a smaller, on smaller opportunities? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you for your set of questions, Carlos. Okay, I'm going to touch base on each of them. If I skip one of your concerns, please let me know. Let me start by cost and production. Well, we already mentioned that we're expecting an increase in production of about 5% vis-a-vis last year for copper. We are also expecting to have a much more production for zinc this year, particularly due to the beginning of the zinc concentrator at Buenavista. In the case of our costs, we're expecting a better cash cost for the next quarters. The reason for that is twofold.
I mentioned already that we have to including our in our financials, a significant open sales reduction in molybdenum. It was $265 million that we had to charge or decrease our sales by that amount. That obviously explain why the company vis-a-vis vis-a-vis the market has shown this quarter lower than expected results regarding particularly EBITDA and some other metrics. We're expecting not to have these type of adjustments in the Q2. We're ready current prices for molybdenum are at about $22 per pound, and we closed the past quarter at $24 per pound.
If there is an adjustment due to negative, or to open sales of molybdenum, we will be relatively small than the one much more smaller than the one that we have acknowledged or registered in the Q1. That should improve our by-product revenues in the Q2. We're also seeing on the total cost of production, some trends that will reflect a better cost. Particularly in energy, we're seeing a much lower gas price than we had before this. That is helping our energy cost of the Mexican operations. We're seeing some relatively lower fuel prices as well. That will be much more noticeable in this Q2.
For production, our expectation is to produce for copper 940,000 tons. For cost, some cost reduction that should help to reduce our cash cost and some by-product revenues, particularly in the molybdenum this quarter and also through the year in zinc because we will have 52,000 tons coming from the new zinc concentrator that we're about to initiate the production in the Buenavista mine. Considering the growth in the case of Los Chancas, we believe that we're in a different environment, so vis-a-vis the government relation that the company has had. Currently we're seeing a much stronger commitment from the Peruvian authorities regarding promoting private investments in Peru, which is a positive event for us.
In the case of Los Chancas in particular, we believe that through the year, we will be able to remove these illegal miners from the Chancas premises. With that, we can come back to exploration efforts. More important than that, the beginning of environmental impact assessment, which is after the feasibility study, the next step in our work for Los Chancas. Finally in M&A, well, at this point, we're not considering anything specific for M&A. However, it is the excuse me, the responsible thing to do in this case is to review any opportunities that may arise.
Obviously, after a thoughtful review, advise our board on or recommend our board some action in this matter. For now, we're not considering anything specific.
All right. Thank you.
You're welcome, Carlos.
Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. It comes from the line of Isabella Vasconcelos with Bradesco BBI. Please proceed.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for the call. Raul, I have a couple of questions. The first one, in terms of, you know, mining regulation and particularly in Mexico, what are the, you know, kind of expected impacts on your operations deriving from the new mining law and whether it changes anything for El Arco and the development of El Arco? My second question is specifically on the outlook for production for the coming years. We noticed that there was a slight delay on the startup of if I'm not mistaken. If you could comment a little bit on the expected production outlook for the coming years for the key commodities. Those are my questions. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Isabella. Okay. At this point, regarding the new mining law in Mexico, we don't see as, let me first mention that currently the bill is not a law. It has to pass a process in the Mexican Senate, and the Senate has to approve it. There also, the text that was approved by the House of Representatives of Mexico, has not significant effects in our current business and our organic growth so far. Now, once we have a definite law, we will review it carefully and see if there are any points where it may impact our operations or our growth for the long term. Your second question is the outlook for production in the coming years.
I already mentioned on copper, we're expecting to be at about 940,000 tons this year. For 2022 and 2024, we expect to produce 1,026,000 tons of copper. That will come basically from much more production at the Peruvian operations, mainly for Toquepala and the contribution at full capacity of Pilares and Buenavista Zinc. The copper production of the Buenavista Zinc concentrator. As you know, in this case, it is a zinc concentrator, but it does have some copper production. In the case of zinc, Excuse me. For copper, In 2025, we're expecting to produce 1,020,000 tons of copper.
2026, 1,100,000 tons. For 2027, 1,071,000 tons. In the case of zinc, this year we will be, we're expecting to produce 116,000 tons of zinc. After that, we will be over 205,000 tons for the next 4 years. On. It's the old grade and the expected production of the new zinc concentrator will fit our production significantly for zinc in the next few years.
That's very helpful. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you. One moment for our next question. It comes from the line of Hernán Kisluk with MetLife. Please proceed.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. It's actually an extension of the question on costs, made by Carlos before. I understand that cost inflation has affected not only you guys but the industry as a whole. At the end of the day, in mining, it's a game of who is at the lowest percentile of the cash cost curve. I was wondering if, during this period of cost turbulence, and for the industry as a whole again, I'm wondering if your position in the cash cost curve has changed, during this period.
To put it simply, Hernán, no, it hasn't changed. We believe that we're still in the first quartile of cash cost. I haven't seen the latest, I mean, this quarter's information. I'm not sure if it is available, but so far, at the end of 2022, we were certainly at a very competitive position. I mentioned already that we had some events that affected our cash cost in the Q1, mainly the impact of this negative sales adjustment on molybdenum.
For the next quarters, we should be lower than our $0.75 per pound that we marked in this past quarter due to more production coming from our operations and more credits vis-a-vis the same prices of all byproducts, due to higher zinc production and lower open sales adjustments for molybdenum. That's our expectation. Obviously, we'll see what happens at the end of the day. What we're seeing in costs, generally speaking, is a reduction in several costs that has affected our operations in Mexico and Peru. Let me put you a practical example of what I mean.
When the Russian invasion to Ukraine started, Russia has been for many years, a significant ammonia producer, and ammonia is one of the key elements for open-pit explosives. We had a tenfold increase in the price of the ammonia. Tenfold. That has decreased significantly now that there are some other sources that has been developed for this key element for open-pit explosives. Some Russian production that has been passing through the different markets. That is a practical example of what I mean. Some higher costs related to this tragic event has been coming back down.
The company is doing its part by working on producing more copper as well as some more of our byproducts.
Got it. Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. It comes from the line of John Tumazos with Very Independent Research. Please proceed.
Thank you. The dividend of $1 was almost as large as net income. Should we infer from this that management expects net income to rebound to the $1.50-$2 a share range? Are the big capital projects 5 or more years out not likely to need money next year or the year after? Is the dividend a candidate to get adjusted because the payout is too large?
I, well, it's up to the board. The board, as I mentioned, look at the cash position of the company, see any requirements of cash. For instance, in terms of debt payments, we have no payments up to 2025 where we will pay $500 million in debt. Last year, we had to pay $300 million. We, at this point, have no significant debt payments. Prices were, well, better than what they are today. For a forward-looking on dividends, I would say that it will be a discussion at the board level.
For now, the board decided to pay a $1 dividend, this past quarter or to approve a $1 dividend that will be paid this quarter. No, there are no, one of the things that we stress is that our dividend policy is flexible depending on the conditions of the market, our cash flow generation, and our growth plans. This is something that we will review, and the board will make a decision in each board meeting regarding this matter.
there's no simple mechanical formula like 50% or 70% of earnings or cash flow?
Yes, that's correct. There is no tie to any specific payout ratio or anything similar. It depends on the way that the company sees the market, its commitments to capital, as well as any duties that we have regarding debts or things like that. There is no specific rule regarding dividends.
Thank you.
You're welcome. One thing that I like to stress is that even though we don't have a specific rule, we do have a very good track record of recognizing our shareholders through dividends. Depending on the company possibilities, the company has always pay a dividend. In certain moments, it has been a relatively higher one, as you mentioned, John, regarding the relationship between net earnings and the dividend paid. It is always an ongoing discussion. One thing that I can tell is that we don't want to hoard cash. That is something that is important for I believe that for our shareholders.
Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. All right. It comes from the line of Marcio Farid with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.
Thank you. Hey, all. Thanks for the time. A quick off, 2 follow-ups for me on my side, please.
Sir, could you a little bit closer to the microphone? We can't listen to you well.
You don't know? Yes.
Please proceed.
All right. Okay. Yeah, couple of follow-ups for me. First of all, on the molybdenum prices, just wondering if you have any, you know, outlook that you can provide to us as a market that we have a hard time trying to track. Just trying to understand how sustainable the current high prices are, what has been the main drivers, and how to think about it going into the end of the year because it has obviously provided good cost support after byproducts for Southern Copper, right? Secondly, specifically on Peru, it does feel like the worst of the social unrest has been left behind for now.
Just trying to understand how you see the current operational environment in Peru, if there is anything that you'd highlight going forward and how confident you are that we're gonna be seeing some sort of instability when it comes to mining production in Peru? Thanks, all.
You're welcome, Marcio, thank you very much for your question. On the drivers for molybdenum prices, it's very hard to know what is going to happen, let me explain you why. This is an extremely shallow market. Just to give you an idea, in copper on a yearly basis, there are about 25 million tons of copper, refined copper being produced and consumed. For molybdenum, it's less than 300,000. It's a fraction, almost 10%, a little bit more than that, 15% in the volume of developed markets such as the copper one.
What has happened in the Q4 as long as much as we understand and our commercial team has shared with us is that given the uncertainties that we had in Chile and Peru, major molybdenum suppliers, as well as copper, some consumers decided to increase their inventories just to protect their pipelines of production in their own activity, these industrial consumers. That somehow move up the price of molybdenum. Well, production in Peru has been much more stable through the quarter, as well as some other higher operations in some other locations. That has made the prices to adjust downward.
At this point, prices are at about $20 per pound for molybdenum, which is a good level for us. If we regret receiving these prices for our production will be always better if they are higher, but that's where we are. As long as it is stable, we will not have these bounce up and down in open sales that we have faced in both the Q4 and the Q1 of this year. Regarding Peruvian social unrest, as you well mentioned, Marcio, it's left behind. The environment, the current environment operation is absolutely normal. All the mines and different mining facilities in Peru are operating right now. There is no mining operation affected significantly by any kind of stoppages.
We believe that this is something that will certainly help to make a more peaceful social environment through 2023. I think that that's it. Go on.
No, I just wanna say thank you very much. This is very clear. Thank you very much.
You're welcome. Thank you.
Thank you. Sir, I'm not showing any questions in the queue. You may proceed with any final remarks.
Thank you, Carmen. With this, we conclude our conference call for the Q1 of 2023. We certainly appreciate your participation and hope to have you back with us when we report the Q2 of 2023 results. Thank you very much, and have a very nice day today.
Thank you. With that, we conclude today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.