Shares of the two Latin American miners most tied to zinc fell together on Friday, November 13, 2026. Nexa Resources, the Peru and Brazil zinc producer, ended at US$11.18, while Buenaventura, Peru’s big precious-metals and base-metals miner, closed at US$24.83, its lowest in at least six months.
The pressure came from money, not metal. The US 10-year yield, the interest rate on American government debt that sets the price of borrowing worldwide, reached 5.14%, and investors now bet that rates will rise rather than fall.
That hurts miners twice. Higher rates make a company’s debt dearer, and they strengthen the dollar, which makes metals priced in dollars costlier for buyers elsewhere.
Both stocks are used here as stand-ins for zinc, the metal that coats steel to stop it rusting. They are not the metal’s own price.
What matters today. A rising cost of money, not a slump in zinc demand, is pulling down the miners that Peru, Brazil and Mexico rely on for export income.
01 The session in one read
Think of a miner as a farmer who borrows to plant and sells at a price set abroad. On Friday, November 13, 2026 both the cost of borrowing and the strength of the foreign currency moved against that farmer.
Buenaventura slipped -1.86% and Nexa Resources -2.19%. The US S&P 500 index, a basket of 500 big American companies, ended at 7,562, so the sector fell harder than the market.
The best-supported reading is that investors are selling risky, debt-carrying miners because bond yields jumped, and that company-specific news explains little of Friday’s move. We are moderately confident, because the miners fell while the broad US stock market held up better and the fear gauge eased over the week, which points to a sector-specific rather than market-wide worry. The variable to watch is the 10-year yield: if it keeps climbing from 5.14%, the pressure on both stocks is likely to continue.
Zinc — the daily wrap.02 The board
Buenaventura is the weaker chart. It has now fallen four sessions in a row and is down 11.29% over five sessions, while Nexa is down 1.93% over the same stretch.
Over a longer span the damage is clearer. Buenaventura is down 27.3% across 60 sessions and Nexa is down 20.5%, so the slide began well before this week.
Source: RT close, 2026-11-13. 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 and heaviest cause: interest rates. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed 31 basis points in five sessions (a basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point), and traders are pricing in rate rises: gold futures lost 4.6% in five sessions.
Second: the dollar. The dollar index rose to 103.41, and a firmer dollar tends to push down the price of metals quoted in it.
The signals do not all agree. Oil was nearly flat and the fear gauge, the VIX, was lower over the week, so this is not a panic. We rate this explanation medium confidence: the rate and dollar link is well supported, but we have no zinc settlement for the session itself to measure the metal’s own move.
From the RT economic calendar: US producer prices rose 0.3% in October against 0.4% expected, and the core measure, which strips out food and energy, rose 0.3% as forecast, or 5.0% on the year. The 10-year Treasury yield still rose to 5.14%, so the milder headline reading did not ease the pressure. China, the largest zinc consumer, had no major calendar release on Friday.
04 The trend behind it
This is a continuation, not a new phase. Nexa has lost 10.70% over 20 sessions and sits 33.1% below its May high, though it remains 87.3% above its November 2025 low of 5.97.
Buenaventura is further gone: it has lost 18.38% over 20 sessions and trades 43.1% below its February peak. The weakness stretches across the whole autumn.
05 What it means for Latin America
Peru is the most exposed, because Buenaventura and Nexa’s Peruvian mines make zinc and other metals a core export. Bolivia and Mexico, also major zinc producers, depend on the same dollar prices and the same global appetite for galvanised steel and construction.
Nexa’s shares have fallen sharply in recent weeks. Boliden, the Swedish miner, agreed in August to buy Votorantim’s controlling stake in Nexa, and that deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to approvals, which gives the stock a possible anchor.
For a saver in Lima or São Paulo holding these shares, the lesson is that higher US rates can hurt a mining stock even when its mines run well.
06 The names to watch
Buenaventura is the one to watch. It sits only 9.0% above its 12-month low of 22.78, and that low dates from 20 November 2025, so the one-year window will soon drop it and the reference level will change.
Nexa’s reference points are the 12-month low of 5.97 and the May high of 16.72. History offers a mixed guide: after 46 earlier falls this large, Nexa was higher 20 sessions later in 23 cases, or 50%, with a median move of -0.5% and a worst case of -57.0%.
For Buenaventura, in 39 earlier cases, it was higher 20 sessions later in 23, or 59%, with a median of +3.4% and a worst case of -33.3%. That is our own price history since 2007, and it is not a forecast.
07 What would end it
The first thing is a turn in bond yields. A fall back from 5.14% would ease the pressure on borrowers and loosen the dollar’s grip on metals.
The second is the next US inflation report and the next Federal Reserve decision, which will show whether rate rises are truly coming. We have no confirmed dates for either, so check the official calendars.
On the charts, Buenaventura holds or breaks near 22.78, and Nexa’s gains would need to rebuild from US$11.18. The honest answer to whether this stops is yes, but only when rate fears fade, and nothing in Friday’s data says they have.
08 What to watch
What Prediction Markets Say
Polymarket, where users bet real money, lists a market on the Federal Reserve’s December decision, with US$33.0 million traded as of 8:05 p.m. ET, 13 November 2026. It prices a 0.25-point rise at 88.5%, a 0.5-point or larger rise at 7.7%, no change at 2.5%, a 0.25-point cut at 0.4% and a 0.5-point or larger cut at 0.2%.
These prices are bets, not polls. They show traders expect the Fed, the US central bank, to raise interest rates again in December.
Why we show this: prediction markets turn real-money bets into a live probability that moves within minutes of the news, which is why investors, campaigns and newsrooms in the United States now follow them closely. We show them next to polls and official results, never instead of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did zinc miners fall on Friday, November 13, 2026?
Higher US bond yields and a stronger dollar hit the sector, and Buenaventura closed at its lowest in at least six months.
Do these share prices show the zinc price?
No. Nexa Resources and Buenaventura are miners’ shares used as stand-ins for zinc, and they also react to interest rates and company news.
Which Latin American countries are most exposed?
Peru, Bolivia and Mexico are major zinc producers, and Peru is most directly tied to these two listed companies.
Does history say these shares will rebound?
In our own history, shares were higher 20 sessions later in 50% of Nexa cases and 59% of Buenaventura cases, but this is not a forecast.