Freeport-McMoRan 1Q Net Profit Plummets

By Cristina Roca

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) Thursday said its first-quarter profit plummeted, but backed its full-year guidance.

The Phoenix-based mining company earned a quarterly profit of $31 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with $692 million, or 47 cents a share, for the same period last year, as it transitions from open-pit mining to large-scale underground mining at Grasberg mine in Indonesia.

Excluding items, Freeport reported an adjusted profit of 5 cents a share for the quarter, compared with 46 cents a share last year and analysts forecasts of 8 cents a share.

Sales fell 22% to $3.79 billion.

Freeport said it had consolidated sales of 784 million pounds of copper, 242,000 ounces of gold, and 22 million pounds of molybdenum for the first quarter. The result fell short of previously guided-for sales volumes of 800 million pounds of copper, 255,000 ounces of gold and 24 million pounds of molybdenum for the first quarter.

The company backed its previous outlook for 2019, saying it expects sales volumes of about 3.3 billion pounds of copper in 2019 along with 94 million pounds of molybdenum and 0.8 million ounces of gold.

Write to Cristina Roca at cristina.roca@dowjones.com; @_cristinaroca

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2019 08:34 ET (12:34 GMT)

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