EZM and HBM earnings will rock!
Look at TECK-Cominco's earnings! WOW!!
Teck's first-quarter profit jumps 119 pct
Mon Apr 24, 2006 7:00 PM EDT
TORONTO (Reuters) - Teck Cominco Ltd. <TEKsvb.TO>, the world's top zinc producer, reported a 119 percent increase in first-quarter profit on Monday, benefiting from higher metal and coal prices and a gain related to the sale of investments.
Teck, which also has copper, coal and gold-mining operations, said it earned C$448 million ($392 million), or C$2.19 a share, for the three months ended March 31. That compared with a profit of C$205 million, or C$1.01, a share in the same period a year ago.
Results included after-tax gains of C$58 million from the sale of investments.
Analysts had expected Teck to earn C$1.79 a share, according to Reuters Estimates.
Teck, which also has a 15 percent stake in the Fort Hills oil sands project in Alberta, said cash flow from operations rose to C$461 million from C$288 million last year. Figures are before changes to non-cash working capital items.
Vancouver, British Columbia-based Teck mined 150,000 tonnes of zinc in the first three months of the year, mostly from its Red Dog mine in Alaska, and produced 74,000 tonnes of refined zinc.
That compared with 161,000 tonnes of zinc and 71,000 tonnes of refined zinc in the same period a year earlier. It produced 59,000 tonnes of copper, compared with 61,000 last year.
Teck said it plans to restart its closed Lennard Shelf zinc operations in Australia. Lennard is a joint venture between Teck and Falconbridge Ltd. <FALlv.TO>. The plan is subject to the final approval of both companies.
The average cash prices for copper and zinc were $2.24 and $1.02 a pound respectively in the quarter. That compared with $1.48 per pound of copper and 60 cents per pound of zinc in the same period last year.
Last year, Teck bought a stake in Canada's booming oil sands industry, where the margins are higher than in base metals.
