(Kitco News) – One of the world’s largest copper producers and significant gold miner saw a robust turnaround in earnings in the third quarter even as its gold sales dropped 4%.
On Thursday, Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) said that the third quarter’s net earnings totaled $329 million, or $0.22 per share. Profits are up significantly from its net loss of $131 million, or $0.09 per share reported in the same quarter last year.
The company’s earnings were relatively in line with consensus expectations.
The company reported revenues for the third quarter of more than 3.8 billion, also in line with expectations. The company said that it generated operating cash flow of $1.2 billion and $1.7 billion for the first nine months of 2020.
Looking at production numbers, Freeport said that it sold 848 million pounds of copper, 234 thousand ounces of gold and 20 million pounds of molybdenum in third-quarter 2020. Freeport’s gold production was down slightly from 243,000 ounces sold in the third quarter of 2019.
The company added that it saw average realized prices of $3.01 per pound for copper, $1,902 per ounce for gold and $9.23 per pound for molybdenum.
Looking at costs, the company said it spent a total of $0.4 billion (including approximately $0.3 billion for major projects) in the third quarter 2020 and $1.6 billion (including approximately $1.0 billion for major projects) for the first nine months of 2020.