Top Copper Producer, Codelco Pre-tax [Full Year 2011] Profits Increased 21% to $7.03 Billion
SANTIAGO - The world’s top copper producer, Chile’s Codelco, said Friday its 2011 pre-tax profits surged 21 percent from a year earlier to $7.033 billion on firm metal prices and a rise in output despite higher production costs.
But CEO Diego Hernandez forecast Codelco’s 2012 copper output would dip by a slight 30,000 tonnes in a red metal market he expects to remain tight on firm sales to China.
“We always have to be prepared for a drop in prices, but we continue to think this year won’t be very different from last year,” Hernandez told reporters during a news conference to present results. 
Codelco produced a record 1.735 million tonnes of copper in 2011, up 2.7 percent from 2010, as output increases in its Radomiro Tomic, Andina and Gaby mines offset production slumps in century-old Chuquicamata, Salvador and El Teniente, the firm said in a statement to the country’s regulator.
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Posted by WoodlawnPost
on Mar 24 2012. Filed under Base Metals, Mining.
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