Equinox Minerals reports profit on Zambia output
Thu May 6, 2010 9:02pm GMT
Print | Single Page[-] Text [+] * Q1 EPS $0.05/shr vs analyst estimate $0.07
* Maintains production expectations
* (In U.S. dollars, unless noted)
TORONTO, May 6 (Reuters) - Equinox Minerals (EQN.TO: Quote) reported a $32.5 million net profit for the first quarter on Thursday, compared with a year-before loss, as its Lumwana copper mine in Zambia reached commercial production in 2009.
Equinox, whose sole operating asset is Lumwana, earned $32.5 million, or 5 cents a share, in the quarter ended March 31. That compared with a loss of $60.6 million, or 10 cents a share, in the year-before period.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S had expected, on average, a profit of 7 cents a share.
Revenue was $200.7 million during the quarter, up from nil in the year-before period, when copper sales were not recorded as revenue. The mine's production climbed 37 percent to 30,471 tonnes.
Equinox, which is 16-percent owned by Canada's First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO: Quote), reiterated that it expects to produce 135,000 tonnes of copper in 2010.
Equinox plans to eventually expand Lumwana's production beyond the 200,000 tonnes-per-year level, and also plans to build a uranium processing plant to extract uranium from the copper ore.
The company has been talking with potential partners that could help fund the mill.
($1=$1.05 Canadian) (Reporting by Cameron French; editing by Peter Galloway)