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Market: NYSE
Sector: General Mining
EPIC: FCX
Latest Price: 32.56  (2.36% Ascending)
52-week High: 56.30
52-week Low: 29.87
Market Cap: 30,903.20M
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Freeport-McMoRan
www.fcx.com

Freeport-McMoRan is a leading international mining company with headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. FCX operates a portfolio of operating, expansion and growth projects in the copper industry and is the world’s largest producer of molybdenum.

Full Freeport-McMoRan profile here
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Freeport-McMoRan Q4 profit falls despite Indonesia strike ending

19th Jan 2012, 10:30 am by Joyanta Acharjee
Freeport-McMoRan Q4 profit falls despite Indonesia strike ending

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE:FCX) said Thursday that fouth-quarter earnings fell due to a long-running strike at a key mine, impacting production.

For the three months that ended December 31, net profit fell to $640 million, or 67 cents per share, from $1.5 billion, or $1.63 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue at the mining firm, which is the world's biggest copper producer, dropped to $4.16 billion, from $5.6 billion in the year-ago period.

Wall Street analysts expected the company to earn 61 cents a share on revenue of $3.85 billion, according to a survey by FactSet Research.

The miner said that the strike at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia has now been resolved.

Total gold production declined in the fourth quarter to 181,000 ounces of gold from 629,000 ounces. Molybdenum production fell to 18 million pounds from 19 million a year earlier, while copper output dropped to 823 million pounds from 1.0 billion pounds in the year-ago quarter.

Operating cash flows totaled $746 million for the fourth-quarter 2011 versus $2.1 billion for fourth-quarter 2010.

In a statement, the company said: "Fourth-quarter results reflect strong operating performance in the Americas and in Africa, and were unfavorably impacted by disruptions at our Grasberg operations in Indonesia.

"We are continuing to advance our growth projects which are expected to result in meaningful increases to copper and molybdenum production in future periods. Our exploration programs continue to identify opportunities to grow our reserve base.

"We ended the year with significantly more cash than debt and have a positive outlook for the future prospects of our business."

Freeport said that operating margin in the quarter fell to 31.2 percent from 55.3 percent a year earlier and sales volume fell 13 percent for copper and 77 percent for gold amid disruptions from the Indonesia dispute.

Net cash costs averaged $1.57 per pound of copper for the fourth-quarter 2011, compared with $0.53 per pound for the fourth-quarter 2010.

For the coming year, Freeport expects copper sales growth of 2.7 percent to 3.8 billion pounds, and 1.3 percent growth in molybdenum to 80 million pounds. However, gold sales volumes are expected to decline 14 percent to 1.2 million ounces.

For the full-year, the company earned $4.56 billion, or $4.78 per share, compared with $4.27 billion, or $4.57 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Revenue for all of 2011 rose to $20.88 billion from $18.98 billion in 2010, on 2011 sales of 1.38 million ounces of gold compared with 1.89 million ounces in all of 2010.

Cash costs for 2011 were $1.01 per pound of copper, compared with $0.79 per pound for 2010.

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