FREEPORT-McMoRan sees lower-than-expected Q3 earnings
Thursday, October 11 2001 - 03:59 PM WIB
According to the company?s statement, PT-FI's sales for the third quarter of 2001 are anticipated to exceed 350 million pounds of copper and 685,000 ounces of gold.
FCX estimated third-quarter 2001 earnings of approximately $0.03 per share, using an average of $0.64 per pound of copper to record FCX's provisionally priced third quarter sales, which remain subject to final pricing. Each $0.01 per pound change in price used for provisionally priced sales would result in an approximate $0.9 million, $0.006 per share, effect on third-quarter 2001 net income. Third quarter 2001 earnings were reduced by $4.7 million, $0.03 per share, because of downward adjustments to provisionally priced sales recognized in prior quarters.
?For 2001, Freeport-McMoRan continues to estimate net cash production costs of less than 10 cents per pound of copper. PT-FI remains the lowest-cost copper producer in the world, with projected unit net cash production costs, after gold credits, of about 5 cents per pound of copper in the third quarter of 200,? the company said.
James R. Moffett, Chairman and CEO, said, ``Our Grasberg mining and milling complex in Irian Jaya, Indonesia continues to run exceptionally well. The Grasberg milling complex set new records for ore throughput and gold recoveries, averaging over 244,000 metric tons per day for the quarter with gold recoveries of almost 90 percent. On August 4, 2001, we processed over 288,000 metric tons of ore.''
``Today's world political situation has not affected our operations, located in the remote province of Irian Jaya. We look forward to continuing our strong operating performance which has enabled us to achieve industry-leading cost performance and to generate significant positive cash flows despite near record low copper prices, '' he said. (alex)