{"id":1202793,"date":"2020-08-20T11:09:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T16:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1033295"},"modified":"2020-08-20T11:09:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T16:09:00","slug":"antofagasta-earnings-dive-on-lower-copper-prices-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1202793","title":{"rendered":"Antofagasta earnings dive on lower copper prices, virus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chilean miner Antofagasta\u2019s (LON:ANTO) profit for the first half of the year<\/a> dropped as copper production and prices for the metal were affected by the global coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

The company, which has resumed growth projects, made a net profit of $135.2 million for the six months ended June 30, down from $302.4 million in the same period last year.<\/p>\n

Realized copper prices were 12.5% lower in the period from a year ago, while sales were down 2.2%, Antofagasta said.<\/p>\n

The combination of those factors meant that miner\u2019s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 22% to $1.01 billion in the January-June period.<\/p>\n

Antofagasta said that while disruptions to mining operations in Chile have been minimal, covid-related restrictions triggered projects delays.<\/p>\n

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While first-half earnings decline by 22%, the miner maintained its dividend.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

The company\u2019s mines have operated with just two-thirds of its workforce during the period also weighed on production.<\/p>\n

Antofagasta also had to postpone one of its main growth projects, Los Pelambres expansion<\/a>. The six-month delay had cost it $50 million (38 million pounds), it said, adding that the redesigning of a desalination plant at Los Pelambres would cost an additional $150 million.<\/p>\n

The company declared an interim dividend of 6.2 cents a share, in line with its earnings-linked policy and down from 10.7 cents a year earlier.<\/p>\n

The Santiago-based copper producer also highlighted the completion of a contract that would allow all its operations to use 100% renewable power from 2022 at lower cost.<\/p>\n

The FTSE 100 company kept production targets for 2020 at between 725,000 and 755,000 tonnes of copper, at a net cash cost of $1.20 per pound of copper.<\/p>\n

Covid effect<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Antofagasta is just one of the major copper miners affected by the global pandemic.<\/p>\n

Wood Mackenzie estimates that about 700,000 tonnes of new copper supply has been pushed out of 2022 expectations by delays, compared to previous forecasts.<\/p>\n

The International Copper Study Group (ICSG) said in its latest report<\/a>, published on Tuesday, that global mine production declined by 3.5% in April. That was the first full month of pandemic-related disruptions in the copper industry.<\/p>\n

News of further disruption have pushed copper from doom to boom in the space of a couple of months.<\/p>\n

Chile-owned Codelco, the world\u2019s no. 1 copper miner, has halted some expansion projects<\/a> and pulled back on production.<\/p>\n

BHP (ASX, LON, NYSE: BHP) has announced it would scale down activity at its Cerro Colorado mine, also in Chile, the world\u2019s top copper producer.<\/p>\n

Prices for the industrial metal, also used in renewables, climbed to a two-year high of over $3 a pound on Wednesday as Rio Tinto delayed restarting a smelter<\/a> at its Kennecott mine in Utah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earnings for the first half of the year dropped 22% as copper production and prices were affected by the global coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[949,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1202793"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1202806,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202793\/revisions\/1202806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1202793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1202793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1202793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}