Peruvian miner Buenaventura pushes back start of San Gabriel project to 4Q25

Peruvian precious metals miner Buenaventura has pushed back the start-up of its San Gabriel gold project to the fourth quarter of 2025, after it was initially slated to begin operating late in the third quarter.

The US$650mn underground mine in the Moquegua region is now 65% complete, with US$299mn remaining to be spent. Of this figure, US$219mn has been committed, and the remaining US$80mn is pending assignment.

The update was announced by company executives at the 2024 Buenaventura Investor Day event held in New York, as the company is listed on the NYSE. According to Renzo Macher, VP of projects and innovation at Buenaventura, the project schedule for 2025 will be as follows:

• 1Q25  Complete construction of waste landfill and primary crusher
• 2T25   Complete construction of tailings dam, leaching plant, filteration plant and grinding                    plant
• 3T25   Complete construction of water dam, power supply, commissioning process and                      operational permit
• 4T25   Start of commercial production

"We are currently recruiting and training to ensure we have staff ready by the middle of next year. In addition, our pre-operational testing [commissioning] team has already been hired and trained, and will enter the field in 1Q25,” Macher said.

San Gabriel is a gold project with an estimated 1.9Moz (million ounces) of reserves and a 14-year mine life. It is expected to produce 150,000oz/y of gold and will be one of Buenaventura’s main deposits, along with Yumpag, Trapiche, Coimolache and La Zanja.

Assets

According to the company's top executives, the future of the company lies in San Gabriel and the other mines and projects mentioned, which will lead to a re-evaluation of the situation of other assets such as Orcopampa, Tambomayo and Julcani.

According to Aldo Massa, VP of business development and marketing, Buenaventura will evaluate up to four alternatives for the three mines: maintain production, increase exploration, sale of the assets or assess closure.

“We are re-evaluating the three mines, and the idea is to reach a conclusion within five to six months. By July-August 2025, we will know what to do with these assets,” the executive said.

On the other hand, the company does not rule out possible acquisitions in the short or medium term, and it is currently evaluating certain projects in Peru and in other countries in the region.

“We are looking at projects in the advanced exploration stage in Peru, Guyana and Argentina. We are still in the early stages; we have signed confidentiality agreements and we will make a decision in the future,” Massa added.

According to Leandro García, CEO of Buenaventura, the reason for this shift is to try to match future gold production with copper output, with the latter metal gaining prominence with the Trapiche and Coimolache operations. 

“We see lower gold production compared with copper in the future. Our efforts will be focused on looking for gold projects,” García added.

For 2025, Buenaventura projects production within the following ranges (see table):

Metal	Production
Copper	55,000t – 60,000t
Silver	14.0Moz – 15.4Moz
Gold	100,000oz – 130,000oz
Lead	17,600t – 19,400t
Zinc	24,400t – 27,000t

Source: Buenaventura