UPDATE:Chile Codelco 1Q Copper Output 371,000MT Vs 347,000MT
April 30 2009 - 5:57PM
Dow Jones News
Copper output at Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile, or
Codelco, the world's largest copper mining company, rose in the
first quarter to 371,000 metric tons from 347,000 tons a year
earlier, Codelco Chief Executive Jose Pablo Arellano said
Thursday.
Including output from its 49% stake in the El Abra mine,
operated by 51% shareholder Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold Corp.
(FCX), total output in the first quarter reached 390,000 tons, up
from 367,000 tons the same period a year earlier, Arellano added in
a press conference.
Codelco's output increased from a year earlier because the
company brought its Gaby copper mine on line in late 2008. Gaby
contributed 38,000 tons of copper in the first quarter of 2009 that
weren't there in the first quarter of last year, Arellano said.
The mining company also produced 5,000 tons of molybdenum during
the quarter, down from the 7,000 tons it produced in January-March
2008.
With copper averaging $1.56 a pound during the first quarter of
the year, Codelco's pretax profit plummeted to $97 million from
$2.02 billion in the first three months of 2008, when copper
averaged $3.52/lb. A sharp drop in molybdenum prices, which fell to
an average $21.40 a kilogram in the first quarter from an average
$72.50/kg in the same period a year earlier, also pulled pretax
profit down.
If Codelco earnings were reported using the same tax
requirements as private companies, it would have posted a net
profit of $80 million, versus $1.6 billion in the first quarter of
2008.
Company earnings go entirely to the public sector, including a
controversial allocation to armed forces weapons procurement
totaling 10% of sales.
As to the recovery seen recently in international copper prices,
currently around $2 a pound, Arellano told reporters that the
company hoped the healthy Chinese demand for the red metal that was
buoying prices "is maintained."
"While we'll continue to see market volatility ... we hope the
efforts of central banks and governments around the world to boost
economies will take effect," the executive said.
-By Carolina Pica, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-820-4244;
carolina.pica@dowjones.com