Atlas Mining arrests steep decline in net income

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp.’s net income in the first nine months of the year continued to drop, but not as much as that of the preceding quarter.

In the nine months to September, Atlas’ income declined by 20 percent year-on-year. In the first semester, it registered a 52-percent drop in profit.

As of end-September, net income was pegged at P1.63 billion. This was because the company incurred an unrealized foreign exchange loss of P698.57 million on dollar-denominated debt.

However, without reckoning such non-recurring foreign exchange adjustments, Atlas Mining saw a 21-percent jump in its core income, which reached P2.1 billion.

In a statement, the company attributed the rise to an increase in production and decline in costs. Cash costs dropped by 10 percent year-on-year to P6.45 billion.

“With more efficient operations in place, we are prepared to grow our capacity further as we approach the completion of our expansion project that will generate a target throughput of at least 60,000 tons a day,” said Adrian Ramos, executive vice president of Atlas Mining.

In the first three quarters, fully owned subsidiary Carmen Copper Corp. saw a 3-percent year-on-year rise in output volume, which was pegged at 68.86 million pounds of copper concentrate—3 percent higher year-on-year.

Likewise, gold output increased by half to 15,188 ounces as process improvements pushed up mill throughput by 5 percent to reach a daily average of 43,462 tons of ore.

During the period, Carmen Copper shipped 68.19 million pounds of copper concentrate and 14,164 ounces of gold. Growth in shipment volumes mirrored those in output at 3 percent for copper and 48 percent for gold.

Even then, total revenues from January to September went down by 3 percent to P10.98 billion, due to the decline in copper prices, which fell by 8 percent year-on-year. But revenues from gold alone ratcheted up by 25 percent to P841.03 million during the same period, despite a 13-percent drop in gold prices.

As of September, copper prices averaged at $3.32 per pound while gold prices averaged at $1,431 an ounce.

Atlas Mining said improvements in the milling process drove Carmen Copper to achieve record production of 24.82 million pounds of copper concentrate in the third quarter. During the period copper output went up 14 percent while those of gold nearly doubled to reach 6,053 ounces.