Zinc miners had a good Monday, November 9, 2026, but it was a bounce inside a long slide. Nexa Resources, which mines zinc in Peru and smelts it in Brazil, and Buenaventura, Peru’s biggest listed miner, both gained on the day.
The best-supported reading is a market-wide recovery rather than zinc news: stocks rallied, fear receded and the dollar softened. Confidence in that reading is medium, because the metal’s own settlement was not available to us.
Zinc matters because it is the rust-proof coating on galvanised steel, used in bridges, roofs, cars and building frames. When construction and manufacturing slow, zinc demand slows with them.
Both shares remain far below their highs of last spring and winter. One good day has not changed that.
What matters today. A weaker dollar and calmer markets lifted Latin America’s zinc proxies, but both shares remain deep below their 12-month highs.
01 The session in one read
Zinc has no glamour, yet it quietly protects much of the modern world from rust. Monday, November 9, 2026 was a day when the companies that dig it up got a lift.
Nexa Resources and Buenaventura both rose, and the wider market moved the same way. The S&P 500 gained 2.35% and the fear gauge fell sharply, which tends to help companies whose profits swing with the global economy.
For a reader outside the industry, think of these two shares as thermometers for zinc. They are not the metal’s price, but they respond to the same forces.
Monday’s gains match the usual pattern of a broad risk-on day, with equities up, fear down, the dollar softer and oil sharply lower. Miners are leveraged to that mood, so they often outrun the metal itself.
Until the shares clear their recent peaks and stay there, this looks like a rebound within a downtrend. The variable to watch is the dollar index, which at 101.68 needs to keep sliding for the miners to hold their gains.
Zinc — the daily wrap.02 The board
Nexa Resources closed at US$12.04, up +5.61%, in New York trading. Buenaventura closed at US$28.90, up +3.25%.
Both names are prices for company shares, not for zinc itself. Nexa carries more Brazilian smelting and Peruvian mining exposure, while Buenaventura is a mix of gold, silver and base metals, so each tells only part of the zinc story.
Source: RT close, 2026-11-09. 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, a broad appetite for risk. The S&P 500 rose 2.35% and the VIX fell 22.31%, so investors who had been hiding returned to cyclical stocks such as miners; confidence in this cause is high.
Second, a softer dollar. The dollar index slipped 0.61%, and metals priced in dollars become cheaper for buyers in euros, yuan or reais; the 10-year US Treasury yield rose 3 basis points to 4.89%, which is a small counterweight rather than a reversal.
Third, a metals-wide mood. Gold’s tracking fund gained 1.88% and market reports described copper bouncing after its worst week since March amid a scramble for metal in China. Oil’s tracking fund fell 3.87%, which eased inflation worries and supported the rally.
Underneath sits a tighter ore market. Treatment charges, the fees miners pay smelters, have repeatedly set record lows in 2026, which means smelters are fighting for scarce concentrate. Our confidence that this matters for the share moves is medium, because it is a slow-moving background force rather than a Monday trigger.
China’s annual inflation rate was 0.7% in October, below the 0.8% forecast and the 0.9% of September, according to the RT economic calendar. Factory-gate prices rose 5.7% year on year against 5.3% expected and 5.0% before. China is the world’s largest zinc consumer, so its factory prices matter for miners such as Nexa and Buenaventura.
04 The trend behind it
The bounce sits in a weak picture. Nexa has gained 5.34% over five sessions but lost 15.1% over 60, and it sits 28.0% below its 12-month high of 16.72 reached on 6 May 2026, though it is 129.3% above its low of 5.25 on 7 November 2025.
Buenaventura has risen 7.64% over five sessions but lost 14.3% over 60. It sits 33.8% below its 12-month high of 43.67 from 27 February 2026 and 29.2% above its low of 22.37 on 7 November 2025.
This looks like a continuation of a correction after a big run, with a short rebound on top. Nexa has now had two up sessions in a row, Buenaventura one.
Our own price history offers a sober check. After Nexa’s 20-session fall of 6.52%, there were 60 earlier cases of a move that large; the share was higher 20 sessions later in 29 of them (48%), with a median change of -0.5% and a worst case of -40.9%.
For Buenaventura, after a 20-session fall of 10.53%, there were 83 earlier cases; it was higher 20 sessions later in 41 (49%), with a median of -0.4% and a worst case of -35.0%. History is not a forecast, but it says such dips are roughly a coin toss.
05 What it means for Latin America
Peru, Bolivia and Mexico are among the world’s main zinc producers, so higher prices feed straight into export earnings, mining royalties and provincial budgets. Peru is the most exposed, with Buenaventura and Nexa’s Peruvian mines at the centre of that trade.
For Brazil, Nexa’s smelters in Minas Gerais and São Paulo state turn concentrate into refined metal, so tight ore supply squeezes their margins even when the zinc price is firm. Nexa’s Brazilian units were behind US$118m of its latest write-down.
Weaker oil helps importers across the region, from Chile to Central America, by lowering fuel bills. A softer dollar also tends to help the Brazilian real, the Mexican peso and the Peruvian sol, which cushions local costs for miners that earn in dollars.
06 The names to watch
Nexa Resources reported a third-quarter net loss of US$47m on 29 October, after a US$124m non-cash write-down, in which a company takes a lower value for assets it holds. Yet adjusted EBITDA, a measure of operating profit, was US$301m and free cash flow US$73m.
Mined zinc reached 85,000 tonnes, up 7% on the second quarter, and Nexa raised its capital spending guidance by 10% to US$420m. That is a miner investing for growth, not retreating.
Boliden’s planned purchase of Votorantim’s controlling stake should close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to approvals. A Nordic mining group taking control would change the company’s ownership and strategy.
Buenaventura offers a different bet, because its gold and silver exposure matters as much as its zinc. With gold’s fund up 1.88% on Monday, that helped its shares as well.
07 What would end it
The rebound fails if the dollar turns higher again or if US inflation data, due in the coming days, pushes bond yields up. Another broad sell-off in equities would hit miners harder than the metals they dig.
The levels to watch are the recent 60-session slide for confirmation of a floor, then the 12-month highs of 16.72 for Nexa and 43.67 for Buenaventura as distant resistance. On the downside, the November 2025 lows of 5.25 and 22.37 mark the extreme floors.
The honest answer is that the bounce can continue for days if the dollar stays soft, but a durable turn needs evidence from steel and construction demand, especially in China. Until then, treat Monday as relief.
08 What to watch
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does zinc matter to ordinary people?
Zinc coats steel to stop rust, so it sits inside cars, bridges, roofs and appliances. Its demand follows construction and manufacturing.
Are Nexa and Buenaventura the zinc price?
No. They are company shares that tend to move with zinc and the wider market, but each also depends on its own costs, debts and other metals.
Which Latin American countries gain from zinc?
Peru, Bolivia and Mexico are major producers, so export income and mining taxes rise and fall with the metal. Brazil benefits through Nexa’s smelting.
Is this the start of a recovery?
Not yet. Both shares remain well below their 12-month highs, and our history shows a dip like this has been followed by gains only about half the time.