Freeport Indonesia records strong Q3 production

New Orleans based copper and gold miner Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Corp. (FCX) said on Tuesday that third quarter production of its subsidiary PT. Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI) exceeded aggregate production and sales targets for the third quarter of 2002, with aggregate sales totaling 534.8 million pounds of copper and 1,096,000 ounces of gold.

Third-quarter copper ore grades improved to 1.31 percent from 1.14 percent in the second quarter and gold ore grades improved to 1.85 grams per metric ton (g/t) from 0.98 g/t in the second quarter.

"Our record breaking performance this quarter reflects the mining of higher-grade ore that we began to access late in the second quarter and which we will continue to mine into next year. No other mine in the world can produce over 1 million ounces of gold and over 500 million pounds of copper during a fiscal quarter. The record level of gold sales during the quarter helped contribute to our record-low average unit net cash production costs, including gold and silver credits, of a net credit of $0.10 per pound of copper, maintaining our position as the world's lowest cost produce,? James R. Moffett, Chairman and CEO of FCX said.

FCX' said operations was unaffected by deadly Bali bomb blasts on October 12, 2002.

PT-FI estimates fourth-quarter copper sales will approximate 415 million pounds and gold sales will approximate 630,000 ounces, which would result in total PT-FI sales for 2002 of approximately 1.5 billion pounds of copper and 2.25 million ounces of gold. (alex)