Zinc, the grey metal that coats steel to stop it rusting, is in short supply this year, but the shares of the companies that dig it up are not rewarding that. Nexa Resources, the Peruvian and Brazilian zinc miner, finished Tuesday, November 3, 2026 flat, and Buenaventura, Peru’s big precious-metals producer, edged lower.
Both are down sharply over three months, with Nexa off 23.1% over 60 sessions and Buenaventura off 22.6% over the same stretch. The pattern says investors are trading the whole metals complex, not zinc alone.
A broad retreat in gold and a nervy stock market pulled miners down together. Against that, zinc’s own fundamentals, a forecast deficit and a recovering Nexa smelter, stayed supportive.
What matters today. A tight zinc market has not yet translated into rising miner shares, because gold weakness and market nerves are dominating the Latin American mining trade.
01 The session in one read
Think of the two miners as a thermometer for zinc and its neighbours. On Tuesday, November 3, 2026 the thermometer barely moved: Nexa was unchanged at +0.00% and Buenaventura eased -0.34%.
Quiet days after hard falls often mean sellers are tiring, not that buyers have returned. Nexa has fallen 4.35% over five sessions, and Buenaventura 6.86%, so a flat close is a pause in a decline.
The best-supported reading is that zinc’s supply shortage is real but already known, while the miners’ shares are following gold and general risk appetite lower, a view we hold with medium confidence because we could not verify zinc’s own close for the session. The variable to watch is whether the gold-tracking fund stops falling, since Buenaventura and, to a lesser degree, Nexa have been moving with it.
Zinc — the daily wrap.02 The board
These are shares of mining companies, not the metal itself, so they reflect gold, silver and investor mood as well as zinc. Nexa closed at US$11.43, while Buenaventura, which earns most of its money from gold and silver, closed at US$26.76.
Over 20 sessions Nexa is down 8.19% and Buenaventura 16.22%. The steeper fall for the gold-heavy name fits with a weak month for bullion.
Source: RT close, 2026-11-03. Where a commodity has no spot feed, an exchange-traded tracker or leading producer is shown as a labelled proxy.
Latin America — Cross-Market Board
03 Why it moved
First cause, and the heaviest: gold and the wider metals complex. The gold-tracking fund GLD fell 0.66% on the session, extending a slide that headlines describe as nearly 30% below gold’s all-time high, and copper has been hovering near a two-and-a-half-month low. Miners trade as a basket, so Buenaventura felt this most.
Second cause: a firmer financial backdrop. The US dollar index edged up 0.14% to 101.89, and the US 10-year Treasury yield rose 7 basis points to 4.97%; a stronger dollar and higher yields make commodities costlier for foreign buyers and make holding metal less attractive. The S&P 500 rose 0.36% to 7,569, and the VIX eased 1.51% to 20.83, yet that fear gauge is still up sharply over five sessions, so caution lingers.
The conflicting signal is zinc itself. The International Lead and Zinc Study Group, the industry’s statistics body, said on 19 October 2026 that the refined zinc market would run a deficit of 88,000 tonnes this year, against 19,000 tonnes forecast in April. A shortage should support prices, yet it is already in expectations, and we rate our reading, that macro selling outweighed zinc strength, at medium confidence.
04 The trend behind it
Nexa’s shares peaked on 6 May at 16.72 and have since lost almost a third of that value, with the last two sessions marginally positive after a longer decline. Buenaventura’s peak came earlier, on 27 February at 43.67, so its slide is older and deeper.
This looks like a continuation, not a new phase. Both stocks remain well above their November 2025 lows, which shows the year’s rally was large and the present drop is a giveback inside it.
05 What it means for Latin America
Peru is the most exposed: both companies are listed with Peruvian operations, and Nexa’s Cajamarquilla smelter, which recovered from a May fire, lifted smelting output 28% on the quarter to 159 kt. Brazil benefits too, as Nexa’s Aripuanã mine raised utilisation to 84% from 71%.
For governments, lower mining shares matter less than metal prices, but Peru, Bolivia and Mexico all lean on mineral exports for tax and foreign-currency earnings. For a traveller or investor, the lesson is that a weaker metals tide can lower local mining stocks without any change in a mine’s output.
06 The names to watch
Nexa is the cleanest zinc proxy. Its third-quarter mined zinc output was 85 kt, up 7% on the quarter, and it lifted 2026 capital spending guidance 10% to US$420m, a sign management expects to keep producing.
History offers a sober note, not a forecast. After earlier falls this large over 20 sessions, Nexa was higher 20 sessions later in 27 of 53 cases, or 51%, with a median gain of 1.5% and a worst result of -54.5%; Buenaventura was higher in 27 of 50 cases, or 54%, median +1.2%, worst -33.3%.
07 What would end it
The nearest floors are the 12-month lows: 5.25 for Nexa and 21.16 for Buenaventura, both far away. The nearest ceilings are their 12-month highs of 16.72 and 43.67, so a stabilisation would first show up as the gold fund holding steady and the dollar index slipping back.
The next dated clue is the study group’s following forecast, which has come in April and October. Does the slide stop? Only when gold stops falling or zinc’s deficit starts moving the shares more than the macro tape does.
What would end or confirm the stall: a rebound in the gold fund GLD, which fell 3.50% over five sessions, or a dip in the dollar index from 101.89 would help miners recover, while a 10-year Treasury yield pushing above 4.97% would extend the pressure.
08 What to watch
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did zinc miners stall on Tuesday, November 3, 2026?
Gold and wider metals weakness, plus a firmer dollar and higher bond yields, outweighed support from a tight zinc market.
Is zinc in short supply?
Yes; the industry study group forecasts a 2026 deficit of 88,000 tonnes before a 25,000-tonne surplus in 2027.
Which listed companies track zinc in Latin America?
Nexa Resources, with mines and smelters in Peru and Brazil, is the clearest, while Buenaventura leans more on gold and silver.
Does history say the shares will rebound?
After comparable falls, Nexa rose over the next 20 sessions about half the time, so history is not a forecast.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI ·