Freeport 2nd quarter loss 'in line with warnings'

Freeport 2nd quarter loss 'in line with warnings'

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters): Copper and gold mining company Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. on Tuesday reported a second- quarter loss of US$18.6 million, in line with analysts' revised estimates after it issued a profit warning six days ago.

The loss was the result of lower copper and gold sales resulting from delayed shipments because of bad weather affecting its port in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, and higher costs of production -- partly resulting from a landslide at its giant mining operation in that country.

New Orleans-based Freeport said its loss per share for the three months ended June 30 was 12 cents, a reversal from earnings per share of 12 cents in the year-earlier period when its profit was $19 million. According to First Call/Thomson Financial, average analysts' estimates had been reduced to the loss of 12 cents per share which had been signaled by the company last week.

The volume of copper sales from its PT Freeport Indonesia unit dropped 28 percent to 256.2 million pounds and gold sales slumped 44 percent to 330,500 ounces in the quarter compared with the year-earlier period. Average net cash production costs for copper tripled to 33 cents per pound year-on-year.

Freeport said that in the third quarter the Indonesian unit's sales are expected to recover to 380 million pounds of copper and 460,000 ounces of gold. Sales for all of 2000 are expected to be about 1.4 billion pounds of copper and 1.9 million ounces of gold.

Freeport said that in the second quarter it repurchased 7.1 million of its own shares for $68.6 million or $9.65 per share, and that in the first 17 days of July it bought back 1.9 million shares for $17.2 million, or $9.16 per share. At the end of June, the company authorized a 20 million share increase in its repurchase program to 80 million shares, of which it now has 16.5 million left to buy back.