Daniel Henao, President & CEO of Mineros S.A. | Rule Symposium 2026: Rick Rule interviews

Ajouté : 2026-05-28

[00:00:02]This is Rick Rule for Rule Investment Media and the Rule Classrooms, sponsors of the 2026 Natural Resources Investment Symposium held July 6th through 10th live in Boca Raton or more likely for you via live stream from the comfort and convenience of your own home.

[00:00:19]However, you attend there's a couple things about the conference you need to know before we embark on today's interview.

[00:00:25]And that is this, we're going to give you more information over 4 days than you can absorb in 4 days. And to that end we interview every single exhibitor and every speaker for that matter before the conference so that you can arrive at the conference fully informed and allocate your time at the conference more efficiently. But that won't be enough.

[00:00:42]We give you 46 hours of valuable programming over 4 days, more than you could absorb. So we record the entire proceedings including all of the company breakout sessions, many of which occur simultaneously. This allows you to refresh your memory, if that's the right phrase, after the conference and attend the breakout sessions that you otherwise couldn't have attended because they occur simultaneously.

[00:01:03]Two more things to know.

[00:01:06]The first is that every single exhibitor at our conference, unlike any other conference on the planet, has been vetted. Specifically, if we don't own shares in the public company exhibitors, they're not allowed on our floor. I've in fact owned shares uh in Mineros since it was Mineros de Antioquia 20-something years ago.

[00:01:27]Uh the fact that I own shares doesn't necessarily mean that they go up in price. People need to understand that, but it does mean that we have vetted every single exhibitor. We turn down more exhibitors than we accept and that allows us to make you a spectacular offer. If you think for any reason whatsoever, you're the judge, that we didn't give you value for money, whether you attended live or live stream, email me. I'll give you your money back.

[00:01:53]In 30 [clears throat] years of investor education, we've had to refund about 1/10 of 1% of the tuition that's charged. But this guarantee is your guarantee that we know that our content can and will make you money. Nobody else has enough confidence to give you that money-back guarantee.

[00:02:14]So, let me begin to earn some of that money I just talked to you about. My guest today is Daniel Henao uh of Mineros. Daniel, uh first of all, thank you for your efforts on behalf of shareholders. Tell us something about yourself. Tell us why people should care about your answers to the nosy questions which follow.

[00:02:32]Perfect. Thanks Rick for the opportunity to be here today and actually uh for having the opportunity to attend uh your conference in Boca. We're really looking forward to it. Um So, my journey to becoming a CEO of Mineros has started about uh 12 years ago after a very significant correction in the gold price. I founded with my two partners, Big Shorty and uh Mike Doyle, some value investments. Uh we started investing in uh in a beautiful bear market uh finding a lot of uh very interesting exploration uh opportunities that later became uh producing mines. Uh that cash flow also helped us consolidate a a portfolio of royalties.

[00:03:17]Uh we funded development assets. We funded acquisitions. And then uh about 3 years ago CIDC approached us and um and told us that uh a banking family uh large banking family from Latin America was considering divesting uh a 30% stake in uh in a 200,000-oz Latin American gold producer.

[00:03:40]Uh we liked that idea.

[00:03:42]Uh we had a good uh you know good hint of who this company could be. We started doing due diligence and we liked what when saw. Uh so, long story short, we acquired that 30% stake and then through a series of transactions, uh we consolidated control of of Mineros. Uh that happened actually last year and since we started investing in this company, um we've been unlocking a lot of value. The share price has gone up about 10 times um in that period of time while paying dividends and while doing buybacks, but at the same time, uh the business is improving at a at a similar pace. So, even after that uh very significant re-rate, we're still trading at about uh two to two and a half times uh trailing EBITDA. So, there's we have a very strong value proposition. We have a a solid uh producing platform. We're developing new mines. We're launching the most aggressive exploration program.

[00:04:39]Just today we announced excellent exploration results, but we're also building a very nice pipeline of assets that gives us a tremendous optionality.

[00:04:48]So, we're I think a very nice uh package deal. Uh we are unknown uh for most of the North American and European inve- investment community. The company, although it's been public since the '80s in Latin America, it's only been public in TSX since early 2022. Uh so, most people are hearing about Mineros for the first time uh in these sort of events.

[00:05:10]So, very valuable opportunity for us to get the story out. So, thank you, Rick, uh for for that opportunity. Well, let's quantify that opportunity. First of all, uh where do you produce uh and uh tell us something about the value proposition. You say two and a half times trailing EBITDA. Maybe you can tell us we don't want material nonpublic information necessarily, uh but tell us uh what the NAV or NPV might be and tell us too what the market cap and enterprise value is.

[00:05:41]Perfect, uh Rick. So, look, I don't have to talk about the future to explain our our value proposition. I'm going to talk about our reality, our current reality, the numbers that we're delivering as we speak. So, to answer your question on jurisdiction, we are a Latin American producer. We operate in Nicaragua, in Colombia, and we acquired an asset late last year in Chile as well. The largest producing mine in our platform is our Nicaragua operation. It produced 140,000 oz last year.

[00:06:12]And then Colombia produces about 90,000 oz. These are not new assets. These are assets that have been in production for over a century each of them. Mineros itself is a 52-year-old mining company. So, we're a mature mining company that has paid dividends for several decades.

[00:06:33]We've been a cash cow for for many, many years. But now with the new ownership, we're also investing in our business, growing that platform, and we'll continue honoring that legacy of returning significant cash flow uh significant significant dividends, now buybacks, to our shareholders, but now unlocking a lot of a lot of value in our in our producing assets and pipeline. So, Q1 2026 is a good example of what we're doing. In Nicaragua, our larger producing assets, in Q1 we delivered 22% more gold and 109% more silver than the same quarter the year before. These are not small improvements. These are very significant improvements that are happening in the in our producing platform.

[00:07:22]And so, of course, we delivered with the current gold price environment, we delivered record revenues, about $300 million in revenues, $154 million in adjusted EBITDA just in one quarter.

[00:07:36]And we finished that quarter with more than $200 million in in cash and bullion uh sitting in vaults. So, very robust operational performance, but at the same time uh Rick, we're working in uh in our growth uh strategy, which I I would love to tell you more about. I'd love to hear about it uh in summary, you're sort of a 200,000 oz producer, solidly profitable, unlike some of your peers, you're polite enough to uh redistribute some of the free cash by way of dividends back to the owners.

[00:08:07]Uh by the way, I can uh attest to the fact that that's occurred for some substantial period of time, and I assure you it's welcome. Uh tell us uh about how you plan to grow uh over the next year or two.

[00:08:22]Right. Uh Rick, and to your point, uh we're owners of these companies, so we have a lot of skin in the game. So, I think our interests are are very very aligned uh when it comes to to shareholders.

[00:08:34]Um so, in terms of growth, so there are basically, you know, three sections here. They can be needed growth, uh and these are the, you know, the catalysts of of of the numbers I was just describing to you. So, we produced 61 gold equivalent ounces in the in the first quarter uh of >> 61,000.

[00:08:52]61, sorry, 61,000 gold equivalent ounces in the first quarter of 2026. Our guidance for the full year is the upper end of the guidance is 233,000 oz. So, we're doing well in terms of uh delivering of on our guidance. Um but uh this is just the beginning of a lot of uh things that are we're working on. So, improved recoveries, uh removing historical bottlenecks that this company had like processing capacity in Nicaragua, we're expanding 40% our processing capacity. We have an incredible situation in Nicaragua where we had significantly more mineral than we could process. Uh so, of course, we're now solving that problem uh because it it it it it produces incredible uh uh impacts on who we are and the returns we can deliver to our shareholders. So, improve recoveries in gold they've gone from 87% to to be on 90% in silver went from 30% to 76%.

[00:09:53]So, that's why we're seeing these very significant improvements. We're going from from 1750 tons per day to 2500 tons per day by the end of this year in Nicaragua and we're also having multiple initiatives to improve the grade of our operation in Nicaragua with better mine plans, better mining methods, better controls on dilution.

[00:10:13]So, those are the immediate ounces initiatives. But beyond that, we're also advancing growth opportunities like the Porvenir asset which is a polymetallic asset that is just southwest of our two producing mines in Nicaragua.

[00:10:29]Very attractive advanced development assets is that on our PFS stage at 3150 gold just to give you an idea. It's a 38% IRR. Um $200 capex, $460 million NPV. So, it meets your criteria.

[00:10:47]Um and at about $1300 all-in sustaining cost. What we like most about Porvenir is that we're seeing further growth beyond those initial 70,000 ounces gold equivalent.

[00:11:00]That's we're almost fully permitted on that asset. We're waiting for minor permits while working also on on detail engineering. So, that hopefully becomes a construction decision in the near future. But we expect to go beyond the 300,000 ounces target in the in the near future and our ultimate goal is to get to 500,000 ounces by 2030. So, we we have a lot of ambitious targets, but we we have what we need to deliver on those.

[00:11:32]Uh and something about [clears throat] the exploration upside that you might see in the budgets associated with that.

[00:11:38]Perfect. So, what what we found Rick when we were starting to do due diligence on this asset is that although these just in Nicaragua to to remain focused there although these assets had produced about 8 million ounces of gold the knowledge that the company had on on its own portfolio was very very small. So, we're working very hard on solving that problem. So, we launched the most ambitious exploration project program this year. We're drilling about 85 km to understand what we already own in this in in this in this jurisdiction. So, very exciting times. Since we're a mature company, we own our own drilling fleets. Our drilling cost is below $100 a meter. So, we get a lot of bang for every dollar that we invest in exploration. So, we're starting to see that. Today, we announced to the market about about 8 m at 17 g per ton. This is a target that connects our two producing mines. It's right in the center. So, it's not a you know, something far where we would need to figure out how to bring into production. No, these are the size of low-hanging fruits that we we're finding in this producing platform. So, so it's it's just a great package deal what we have to offer here at B2Gold.

[00:13:03]It's important for people who [clears throat] are listening to this who are less familiar with Nicaragua than they should be.

[00:13:09]The mining industry was constrained in the Somoza era and then after that, of course, in the earlier [clears throat] part of the Ortega era. But as you suggest, this area in Nicaragua has produced for a very long time. You've got good company there and the country uh, to money but certainly known to me, uh, is, uh, rapidly improving. Uh, perhaps you could talk to, as an example, the increase in in infrastructure, uh, and what's happening in your region of Nicaragua.

[00:13:42]Yeah, so we're not alone in Nicaragua.

[00:13:44]Companies like Equinox Gold is, uh, producing, uh, significant, uh, amounts of gold in in the country. They are the largest company in Nicaragua. We're the second largest company in Nicaragua.

[00:13:57]Uh, so so there's Equinox Gold, there's Meko Mining, uh, there's Metals Exploration. So the gold mining industry in general is the biggest industry in Nicaragua. The country recognizes that.

[00:14:08]So it's a very interesting dynamic, uh, Rick, in in the sense that, uh, the government, uh, concern is actually, you know, on on on locking, uh, more production. So they're they're, you know, they're behind us telling us, "Guys, you know, move faster. Do things at a at a better pace." Uh, and that's just a great, uh, dynamic to have.

[00:14:30]Uh, so so so it's one of the reasons why we we have a lot of, uh, focus in Nicaragua right now because the operational improvements that, uh, this platform is bringing is very significant. And then the framework to advance, uh, things is it's great. So, uh, properties like Gold Bonanza, uh, we met with the government and we explained benefits and they said, "Okay, makes sense." And they assigned a team, uh, to to fast-track the permitting process. Uh, we received major environmental permits about, uh, two or three weeks ago for the processing plant, for the tailings facility. Uh, the mine is fully permitted. So we're only waiting for forestry permits and then it would be a fully permitted, uh, project that should add a lot of value for for our shareholders.

[00:15:15]Daniel, uh, thank you first of all for your efforts on behalf of shareholders, uh, and for your support for our educational efforts. To the extent that people, uh, listening to this interview and attending our conference would like to know more, uh, about Mineros, who in particular do they contact and how exactly do they find that person?

[00:15:38]Perfect. Uh, Rick, before I answer your question, I want to tell you about our two last deals. We added 30 million ounces, uh, to our, uh, producing, uh, platform. Uh, so I'm amazing, uh, optionality, uh, from these two recent transactions. So I'll leave you with that and please, if you want to learn more about, uh, about Mineros, what we're doing, you can reach out to, uh, to Anne Wilkinson. Her email you would It's It's [email protected].

[00:16:10]It email that you're going to find Anne Wilkinson on the other side of that email. And you can also reach out directly to me.

[00:16:18]That's Daniel dot Henao, h e n a o, at mineros.com.co.

[00:16:25]Would love to tell you, uh, more about what we're building here.

[00:16:29]Well, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The buck stops at the top. I know Anne Wilkinson, by the way, a competent human being, so you're in good hands, however you go. Daniel, uh, thank you for your historic efforts on behalf of shareholders. I look forward to hosting you, uh, in Boca Raton, July 6th through 10th.

[00:16:48]Thank you, Rick.