Atlas back in the black as of September on higher gold prices

Listed Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. saw its net income hit P490 million as of end-September, a turnaround from a net loss of P45 million in the same period last year.

Atlas attributed the significant improvement in its bottom line to favorable gold prices coupled by the significant increase in the company’s mined gold volume.

Also, Atlas told the Philippine Stock Exchange that it was able to trim its operating costs in the first nine months, allowing it to cut its average cost per pound by 35 percent.

These factors pushed the company’s core income for the period to P1.64 billion, a surge of 275 percent from P438 million in the first nine months of 2019. Accordingly, cash generated from operations enabled Atlas to pay $40 million of its loans this year in addition to the $57.2 million in loan payments made in 2019.

During the period, the mine’s milling tonnage increased by 5 percent to 13.73 million from 13.07 million tons. Meanwhile, the increase in metal prices that began in June continued to improve in the third quarter, allowing copper prices to rise by a cumulative 20 percent and gold, by 16 percent.

Atlas president Adrian Ramos said the company’s return to profitability brought by the firm’s continued investments in maintenance, safety and optimization “that resulted in sustained higher volumes of production and lower cost per pound of copper.”

“This has positioned our company not only to withstand any downturn in the commodities market but also to maximize earnings when metal prices improve as we have experienced this year,” he added.