Atlas Mining profit hits P1.9B

MANILA, Philippines—Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. posted a 45-percent drop in its net income last year to P1.9 billion. The decline was due mainly to the recognition of an unrealized foreign exchange loss of P1.02 billion on dollar-denominated debts.

In 2012, Atlas Mining reported a net income of P3.43 billion, which was attributed to the posting of an unrealized foreign exchange gain of P593 million.

Core income, however, rose by 4 percent to P2.62 billion last year even with metal prices going down.

Atlas Mining said the realized price of copper fell by 9 percent to an average of $3.30 a pound. That of gold fell deeper, losing 17 percent to settle at $1,385 an ounce.

“Our strategy to optimize production and reduce cost is paying off as we are able to grow our core income in 2013 despite weaker metal prices,” Atlas Mining executive vice president Adrian Ramos said in a statement.

Last year, fully owned subsidiary Carmen Copper Corp. saw output rising 2 percent to 91.51 million pounds of copper concentrate.

In 2013, Atlas Mining rolled out a P5.4-billion program to expand Carmen Copper’s milling capacity by 50 percent to 60,000 tons per day.

Just last month, the company reported that the initial commissioning of the expansion project “yielded positive results.” The expanded processing plant is expected to be fully operational this month.

“With a higher production capacity, we will achieve economies of scale that will position us to be even more competitive in the future,” Ramos said.

Carmen Copper shipments of copper concentrate were just about the same at about 91 million pounds, but gold cargos increased by about half to 19,555 ounces. This resulted in gold revenues jumping by a quarter to P1.14 billion.