Minsur S.A.

What it is

Minsur is a Peru-based mining company primarily engaged in the exploitation, smelting, refining, and commercialisation of tin. It is Peru’s only tin producer and operates the San Rafael underground mine in Puno, which produces roughly 12% of the world’s tin.

Beyond tin, Minsur’s facilities include the San Rafael Mine in the department of Puno and a smelting and refining plant in Pisco. It also runs the Pucamarca gold mine and, through its subsidiary Marcobre, the Mina Justa copper mine — making it a three-metal company whose revenues are dominated by tin.

Tin revenue represents 88% of Minsur’s total revenue, which makes the company unusually exposed to tin prices — a double-edged quality, given tin’s role as an essential solder in electronics manufacturing.

Who owns it

Inversiones Breca S.A. is Minsur’s majority shareholder, holding the entirety of its share capital. Breca is the holding company of Peru’s powerful Brescia family — a Peruvian business conglomerate founded more than 130 years ago, with operations across Latin America.

Within Inversiones Breca, the shareholders are Ana María Brescia Cafferata with 30%, RBCF Inversiones with 20%, and Pedro, Mario and Fortunato Brescia Moreyra each holding 13.33%, plus an RBCF trust with 10%. Because Breca holds 100% of Minsur, the company has effectively no public free float — MINSURI1 shares trade very thinly on the BVL.

Who runs it

Fortunato Brescia Moreyra chairs the board, keeping the family at the top of governance. Juan Luis Kruger leads the company as CEO under the broader Grupo Breca umbrella.

Gabriel Ayllón serves as Finance Director and is Minsur’s named investor-relations contact, responsible for communicating with the market.

Minsur was founded in 1966, and the Brescia group acquired a major stake in Minsur in 1977, giving the family nearly five decades of control over the company.

The money, in plain words

Full-year 2024 sales were US$2,170.4M, compared to US$2,010.75M a year earlier — growth of 7.9% (our calculation). Net profit was US$463.55M from continuing operations compared to US$395.3M the prior year, though the headline net profit including the Brazil business came to US$612.6M — meaning Minsur kept about 28 cents of profit from every dollar of sales, a net margin of 28.2% (our calculation), exceptional for a mining company.

The company’s cash-generation is even more striking than the profit line: in the full year it generated US$835.0M in operating cash flows. At year-end its cash balance stood at US$230.8M.

At a price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 6.4×, the market prices Minsur as a bargain relative to global mining peers — though the near-zero free float means few outside investors can actually buy in easily.

What it is doing now

The single biggest move of recent times is a strategic exit from Brazil. Minsur agreed to sell its Brazilian subsidiary Mineração Taboca — which operates the Pitinga mine and Pirapora smelter — to China Nonferrous Trade Co.

Ltd., a subsidiary of CNMC, with Minsur’s entire indirect stake in Taboca transferred subject to regulatory conditions. The deal, announced in November 2024, was completed on April 2, 2025, when all shares were transferred to CNMC for US$340M.

The sale was deliberately timed: without its Brazil assets, Minsur remains the world’s second-largest producer of refined tin, and management has said the proceeds will fund Peruvian expansion. The projected investment at San Rafael alone is between US$300M and US$400M over the coming five years, targeting sustained output and new tin resource discovery.

What to watch

• Tin price sensitivity: with 88% of revenue from tin, a sustained move in the tin price — driven by electronics demand or supply disruptions — flows almost directly into Minsur’s bottom line.
• Peru-only focus: now that Brazil is sold, Minsur is a single-country miner; any community conflict, regulatory change or natural event at San Rafael or Mina Justa carries outsized weight.
• Capital deployment: US$340M in Taboca proceeds and US$835M in annual operating cash give management a large cheque to write; the market will watch whether they spend it on organic expansion, a new acquisition, or return it to the controlling family.
• Liquidity paradox: Breca’s 100% ownership means the listed share is more a price reference than a tradeable asset — any move toward a genuine free float would be a transformative event.

This is news, not investment advice.