Inmet CEO Jochen Tilk speaks at the shareholders meeting in Toronto on April 27, 2010.MARK BLINCH
Third-quarter profit at metals miner Inmet Mining rose 40 per cent to $86-million as rising metals prices drove strong earnings from operations.
The Toronto-based miner with global operations said its earnings per share for the quarter were $1.53, compared with $1.10 in the prior-year period. Gross sales rose 30 per cent to $313.3-million.
Earnings from operations were $148-million compared to $112-million in the third quarter of fiscal 2009, "a result of higher metal prices and earnings from Las Cruces," a new Inmet mine in Spain.
Helping drive the profit improvements were a bump in copper prices to $3.65 (U.S.) per pound from $2.88 at the beginning of the quarter. On top of that, zinc prices were 27 per cent higher and gold was up 5 per cent, the company said in a statement.
Inmet has interests in mines in Turkey, southern Spain, central Finland and Papua New Guinea and is developing a property in Panama.