Falconbridge Ltd. reported first quarter 2006 net income of $462 million (earnings per share - $1.23 basic; $1.21 diluted) Tuesday. All prices are in American dollars.
This is one of the highest quarterly net earnings in Canadian mining history.
This compares with first quarter 2005 net income of $176 million (earnings per share - 58 cents basic, 57 cents diluted).
"Falconbridge is off to a great start for 2006 as we took advantage of the strong fundamentals of our business during the first quarter," said Derek Pannell, CEO and president of the nickel giant, in a news release.
"Metals prices continued to climb and overall our operations have performed well, resulting in another quarter of outstanding financial results. As we move into the second quarter, we look forward to benefiting from further upside at our operations and from the high metal price environment."
On the subject of the much-anticipated Inco Ltd. takeover, Pannell said Falconbridge continues to work with Inco to seek American and European regulatory approval for the proposed combination of the two companies.
The proposed takeover bid first presented last October has been delayed on two occasions and Inco has set a July date to finalize the complicated merger bid, which would make the new Inco one of the world's largest mining companies.
"Discussions with officials at both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission continue to be constructive as we await approvals from both regulatory bodies," said Pannell.
According to Falconbridge, revenues for the first quarter of 2006 were $2.9 billion, 51 percent higher than revenues of $1.9 billion in the first quarter of 2005. Business unit revenues were 83 percent higher for copper, nine percent higher for nickel, 67 percent higher for zinc and 14 percent higher for aluminum.
Operating expenses totaled $2.1 billion in the first quarter, compared to $1.4 billion in the same period last year, primarily due to the higher value of raw material feeds.
Mining, processing and refining costs increased to $743 million from $595 million in the first quarter of 2005 due to higher levels of copper anode and copper cathode production, increased refined nickel production, higher energy and supplies/consumables costs, and the impact of a weaker American dollar on operating costs at all Canadian and South American operations.
