Capstone trims copper guidance on Pinto Valley crusher delay

Capstone Copper (TSX: CS; ASX: CSC) has lowered the bottom of its 2026 copper production guidance to 195,000 tonnes from 200,000 tonnes after repairs to the primary crusher at its Pinto Valley mine in Arizona ran longer than planned. The top of the range stays at 230,000 tonnes.

The Vancouver-based miner said on Thursday that commissioning showed a few of the crusher's major mechanical components needed more maintenance. The original equipment manufacturer is making the parts off-site, and the crusher is now expected to be recommissioned in mid-December. Capstone estimates the extra downtime will cut this year's copper output by about 5,000 tonnes, depending on the timing of an interim restart and of the crusher's return.

In the meantime, the company is redeploying temporary mobile crushers, which it expects to allow a partial restart of the concentrator in mid-November at up to 40,000 tonnes a day.

The delay pushes back a restart Capstone expected two weeks ago. With its third-quarter results on Oct. 29, it said repairs found during crusher commissioning should be finished by Nov. 2, when operations would resume. It also said consolidated output would finish at the low end of the 200,000- to 230,000-tonne range and C1 cash costs at the high end of the $2.45 to $2.75-a-pound range.

Pinto Valley produced 6,358 tonnes of copper in the third quarter, 36% less than a year earlier, after 45 days of planned and unplanned downtime. Mill throughput fell 29% to 25,001 tonnes a day, and C1 cash costs rose to $6.11 a pound from $3.63 a year earlier. In February, Capstone guided for 42,000 to 48,000 tonnes from the mine this year at $3.00 to $3.30 a pound; by October it said the mine was trending below the bottom of the production range and above the top of the cost range.

The guidance includes a full year of output from the Cozamin mine in Mexico, which Capstone agreed in September to sell to Luca Mining (TSXV: LUCA; US-OTC: LUCMF) for up to $385 million.

Strike risk

Capstone also named Chile's national truckers' strike, called by a civic movement and a coalition of independent trucking associations over high fuel prices, as a risk to its 2026 production expectations. The strike could suspend concentrate and cathode shipments and deliveries of key consumables such as fuel and sulphuric acid, the company said. Production at Mantoverde and Mantos Blancos has not been affected so far, which Capstone attributed to preventative measures taken before the strike began and to storage capacity on site.

Truckers began an indefinite national strike on Tuesday over fuel prices that have risen more than 53% this year, blocking stretches of highway and cutting cargo access to ports including Iquique, the Associated Press reported. In Tarapacá, truckers blocked Ruta 5 Norte and Ruta A-65 at Pozo Almonte, and trucking groups in El Loa province, which includes Calama, confirmed they would join the stoppage called by the Confederación de Transportistas Fuerza del Norte, Minewire reported. Two of the main national trucking confederations, CNTC and CNDC, have not joined, Radio Universidad de Chile reported on Thursday.

Fuel and acid were already a cost problem. In October, Capstone said higher diesel and sulphuric acid prices were pushing up its costs, and that it had cut oxide output at Mantoverde to limit purchases of acid at elevated spot prices, lowering cathode production by about 5,000 to 8,000 tonnes. Barrick Mining (TSX: ABX; NYSE: B) also blamed higher diesel prices for a rise in its copper costs this week.

Capstone said it will keep putting mitigation measures in place where possible to avoid production losses from the strike.