On a November morning in 2026, Lundin Mining opened its third-quarter earnings call not with figures but with a hardship: a winter of unusual severity in Chile's Atacama desert, where two storms in July and August toppled transmission towers and left the Caserones operation in darkness for about a month. It is the kind of event that reminds an industry how much of its output rests on lines of steel and wire crossing country no one controls. The company says the outage has weighed on its results this year, and the full accounting of what was lost, and how long the recovery will take, has yet to
Lundin Mining Q3 2026 Call: Caserones Storms Cut Power for About 30 Days and Weighed on Results
Two storms left the mine without power for about 30 days
Mark
Why did the CEO lead with Caserones instead of the quarter's headline numbers?
Mimi
Because the problem was big enough to shape the whole year. Two storms, in July and August, damaged transmission towers and left the mine without power for about 30 days.
Mark
Thirty days is a long time for a mine to be dark.
Mimi
It is, and he said it hurt the company's performance this year. He framed it as a Caserones issue, in the Atacama region of Chile.
Luke
Careful, though. What do we actually know about the size of the hit?
Mimi
Not much yet from what's in front of us. The cause and duration are clear. The production and cost figures aren't.
Luke
So 'weighed on results' is management's characterization, and we haven't seen the numbers behind it.
Mark
And the 30 days?
Luke
Approximately 30 days, in Lundin's words. It's an estimate from the company, not an audited outage log.
Mimi
He was also starting to say the team stayed focused through it, but that part of the remarks is cut off.
Mark
What should a reader look for next?
Luke
Quantified losses, a recovery timeline, and whether the Q&A gives any firm answers on either.
Il Polso
- Two storms in July and August tore down transmission towers serving the Caserones mine in Chile's Atacama region.
- For roughly thirty days the operation sat without power, and the chief executive chose to lead the call with that failure.
- Management is tying the site's weak showing this year directly to the blackout, putting the damage at the center of the quarter.
- The numbers that would size the loss, including production shortfalls and the recovery timeline, have not yet been laid out and remain the open question.
On a November morning in 2026, Lundin Mining opened its third-quarter earnings call not with figures but with a hardship: a winter of unusual severity in Chile's Atacama desert, where two storms in July and August toppled transmission towers and left the Caserones operation in darkness for about a month. It is the kind of event that reminds an industry how much of its output rests on lines of steel and wire crossing country no one controls. The company says the outage has weighed on its results this year, and the full accounting of what was lost, and how long the recovery will take, has yet to be told.
On November 5, 2026, Lundin Mining held its third-quarter earnings call, and its chief executive, Jack O. Lundin, chose to begin with the trouble at Caserones rather than the results. He said the site's challenges had shaped the company's performance this year, and he wanted listeners to hear that first.
Caserones sits in Chile's Atacama region, where by Lundin's account the winter had been exceptionally harsh. Two major storms, one in July and one in August, damaged the transmission towers that carry power to the site. The mine was left without electricity for about thirty days.
The call otherwise followed its usual course. Results had been released the day before, and the presentation and webcast would be available on the company's website. Chief Operating Officer Juan Andres Morel and Chief Financial Officer Teitur Poulsen joined Lundin, a pairing that foreshadowed a discussion split between restoring operations and absorbing the financial cost.
Lundin had only begun to describe how the Caserones team kept a strong focus through the disruption when the available remarks end, so that part of the story remains untold.
What the call establishes is the cause and length of the outage. What it does not yet reveal is how much production was lost, what the disruption cost, or how soon the mine returns to full operation. Those answers are expected in the full third-quarter results, the presentation, and the question-and-answer session that followed.
On the morning of November 5, 2026, Lundin Mining held its third-quarter earnings call, and its chief executive chose to begin with the problem rather than the numbers. Jack O. Lundin, the company's President, CEO and a director, said he wanted to address the challenges at Caserones before turning to results, because they have affected the company's performance this year.
Caserones is Lundin's operation in Chile's Atacama region. According to Lundin, the area went through an exceptionally severe winter. Two major storms, one in July and one in August, damaged transmission line towers serving the site. The damage left the operation without power for approximately 30 days.
The call followed the usual format. Lundin noted that the operating and financial results had been released the day before, on November 4, and that the news release, presentation and webcast replay would be posted on the company's website. All amounts, he said, are in U.S. dollars unless stated otherwise. After the prepared remarks and presentation, the floor would open for questions. He also pointed listeners to the cautionary notes on forward-looking statements in the presentation and in the company's filings on SEDAR+.
Lundin was joined by two executives: Juan Andres Morel, the Chief Operating Officer, and Teitur Poulsen, the Chief Financial Officer. Their presence points to where the discussion would go, with operational recovery on one side and the financial effect on the other.
In describing the outage, Lundin began to say that throughout these events the Caserones team maintained a strong focus. The available portion of the remarks ends there, so what that focus was directed at is not captured in the material at hand.
That limit matters. The transcript establishes the cause and the duration of the disruption: two storms, damaged towers, roughly a month without power. It also establishes that management ties the site's underperformance this year to those events. What it does not yet show are the figures that would size the damage, such as how much production was lost, what the outage cost, or how quickly the mine is back to normal operation.
Those answers should come from the full Q3 2026 results and the accompanying presentation, and from the question-and-answer session that followed the prepared remarks. The things to watch are quantified production losses, a recovery timeline for Caserones, and whether the company expects the effects to spill into the coming quarters.
Citazioni salienti
The Atacama region had an exceptionally severe winter, with two major storms damaging transmission towers and leaving the operation without power for about 30 days.— Jack O. Lundin, President and CEO, Lundin Mining (paraphrased)
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