Freeport McMoRan said its Peruvian unit nearly tripled first-quarter copper production after bringing online a $4.6 billion expansion.
Copper production jumped to 272 million lb in Q1 from 107.2 million lb a year earlier, while copper sales jumped to 262.6 million lb from 109.9 million lb, the Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde unit said Thursday in a filing to securities regulator SMV.
Asia accounted for 80% of sales last year, followed by North America (8%), South America (7%) and Europe (5%), it said.
Capital expenditures totaled $163 million in the quarter due to spending on the expansion, which has been completed and ramped up to full capacity in the quarter, the company said.
The project boosted concentrator capacity at Cerro Verde to 360,000 mt/d of ore from 120,000 mt/d and will provide additional annual production of about 600 million lb of copper and 15 million lb of molybdenum. The mine is on track to produce 600,000 mt copper in 2016, partner Buenaventura said last year.
Quarterly profit doubled to $96.9 million from $40.7 million a year earlier as sales also doubled to $532 million from $257 million a year ago. The company sold copper at $2.23/lb compared with $2.49/lb a year earlier.
Cerro Verde is Peru's third-largest copper miner after Southern Copper and Antamina.
