After more than doubling in the last six months continues The Boliden stock up on Tuesday after releasing its financial results for 2025. The stock is supported by rising metal prices and is lifting slightly more than the Stockholm Stock Exchange’s other major base metal companies, Lundin Mining. It indicates that the report came in line with market expectations or slightly better.
Supported by rising metal prices, partially offset by currency, Boliden delivers its best reported operating profit to date. According to CEO Mikael Staffas, it is also one of the strongest when adjusting for revaluation of process stocks.
In his CEO’s speech in the report, Mikael Staffas writes that Boliden is performing better than ever. In an interview with EFN, the CEO explains why.
– We have developed the company to be ready to take advantage of the situation as it is right now. We have good production in relation to the conditions, we have a result that is really good and you also have a quarter with good safety statistics. There is nothing bad, everything is going well, he says.
“Shine best as usual”
Rising prices and conditions also partially shine through in the so-called ore base calculation, which is traditionally released in connection with the financial statements. It is a technical and economic assessment of how much ore is in a deposit and how much can be profitably mined. With increased price assumptions, a greater proportion of the ore is considered to be economically mineable.
– They are still nowhere near where today’s spot prices are, but we have raised our long-term forecasts and then you should get more volume, but we have got more volume than can be expected from the price increase. Our levels have not decreased either, which you can actually expect when you have a price increase, says Mikael Staffas.
In Garpenberg, for example, the known and indicated mineral resources increase by 84 percent.
– Garpenberg shines best as usual, says the CEO.
According to Mikael Staffas, the ore base shows that there is plenty of organic growth for Boliden to capture if prices and terms continue to remain at high levels.
– We have dusted off a number of projects from the drawer for which we are making new calculations and it is well in the direction of the possibilities that if this continues we will increase our investment level. These projects are a great strength and it would be a misconduct not to start them if you believe that today’s price levels are long-term, but that is not something we need to decide on this week, he says.
The rain in Portugal is worrying
Boliden’s mining operations deliver a record result for a single quarter. The smelters also deliver a stable quarter with a record high production of copper cathodes in Harjavalta, Finland.
Boliden also reiterates its guidance for 2026 released at the beginning of December.
The clear negative in the report is that production in Somincor is negatively affected by rainy weather in Portugal, which may affect production during the first quarter. However, Boliden maintains its forecast for Somincor for the full year.
It was last year that Boliden acquired Somincor and the Zinkgruvan in Askersund from Lundin Mining.
– In general, the integration has gone well, the timing was excellent because they have made significantly more money than we had in our calculations, but we have a challenge right now because of the rain in Portugal, says Mikael Staffas.
At the guidance for 2026 in December, Boliden delayed the ramp-up of the capacity increase at the smelter in Norwegian Odda by two months. There are no new changes. The capacity increase should provide an annual profit contribution of around 150 million euros.
– There is no update on it compared to what we said in December, but it is rolling on, says Mikael Staffas.
Boliden’s board proposes a dividend of SEK 11 per share. According to CEO Mikael Staffas, it is too early to talk about a possible extra dividend next year.
Historically, Boliden has made extra dividends when the net debt ratio, including post-processing debt, falls below the target of 20 percent. Currently, it is just over 30 percent.
