Freeport's H1 copper, gold production down

New Orleans-based copper and gold miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) reported on Tuesday its first half copper and gold production dropped sharply as a result of mining accidents that hit the company's Indonesian subsidiary earlier.

FCX reported that its Indonesian unit PT. Freeport Indonesia's (PTFI) first half copper production dropped by about 60 percent from 790,000 pounds last year to 316,400 pounds.

Gold production fell even further from 1,438,000 ounces to 490,200 ounces.

"Results for the first half of 2004 were adversely affected by lower ore grades and reduced mill throughput as PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI), FCX's Indonesian mining unit, completed its efforts to restore safe access to the higher-grade ore areas in its Grasberg open-pit mine following the fourth-quarter 2003 slippage.," said FCX in its quarterly report.

PT-FI PRODUCTION AND SALES

	Second Quarter		Six Months
	2004	2003	2004	2003
Copper (000s of recoverable pounds):
Production	209,300	401,200	316,400	790,000
Sales	205,100	395,200	310,500	787,200
Avg realized price per pound	$1.22	$0.75	$1.24	$0.75
Gold (recoverable ounces):
Production	364,900	858,400	490,200	1,438,000
Sales	351,100	849,200	474,900	1,433,100
Avg realized price per ounces	$389.97	$347.69	$393.80	$345.14

FCX predicted sales and production would bounce back in the second half of this year. "Second-half 2004 sales are projected to increase from first-half levels and PT Freeport Indonesia's share of annual sales are estimated to total 1.0 billion pounds of copper and 1.5 million ounces of gold in 2004 and 1.5 billion pounds of copper and 2.9 million ounces of gold in 2005," said the company.

FCX has around 90 percent shares in PT.FI, which runs one of the world's largest copper and gold mining complex in Papua province.

Elsewhere, FCX also said that during the second quarter of 2004, PT Smelting, PTFI's 25 percent-owned Indonesian smelting unit, completed a planned 33-day major maintenance turnaround on schedule and resumed normal operations.

PT Smelting treated 135,400 metric tons of concentrate in the second quarter of 2004, compared with 208,400 metric tons in the year-ago period. PT Smelting reported quarterly production of 86.9 million pounds of cathodes and sales of 89.7 million pounds of cathodes. Cathode production totaled 124.1 million pounds and sales totaled 128.2 million pounds during the second quarter of 2003.(alex)