Mining Stocks; Inmet (TSX:IMN) Announces First Quarter Earnings of $1.42 Per Share Compared With Earnings of $1.06 Per Share in the First Quarter of 2009.

Mining Stocks; Inmet (TSX:IMN) Announces First Quarter Earnings of $1.42 Per Share Compared With Earnings of $1.06 Per Share in the First Quarter of 2009.


Toronto, Canada – ( http://www.investorideas.com/ mining stocks newswire) Inmet (TSX:IMN) announces first quarter earnings of $1.42 per share compared with earnings of $1.06 per share in the first quarter of 2009.

First quarter highlights

-- Higher metal prices

Higher copper and zinc prices increased sales by $55 million compared to the same quarter of 2009. In 2009, prices were negatively impacted by the global financial crisis.-- Improvement in operating cash flow Operating earnings were higher this quarter compared to the first quarter of 2009, and outflows of working capital were lower. In the first quarter of 2009, we had to return $48 million to smelters for finalization adjustments for shipments made in 2008.-- Higher zinc production and lower gold production Zinc production was higher because grades at Pyhasalmi were higher. Production of gold was significantly less as Troilus continued to wind down operations, drawing all of its feed from its low grade stockpile. Troilus is expected to process the last ore from stockpiles in June.-- Higher earnings from operations Earnings from our operations were $111 million compared to $93 million

last year. This was a 19 percent increase despite Troilus contributing

$43 million less.-- Las Cruces progressing on commissioning plan Las Cruces produced 4,500 tonnes of copper in the quarter, which was less than our targets for cathode production in the first quarter. Metal recoveries and cathode quality have been excellent. We successfully completed a planned 15 day shut down on March 30 to improve plant reliability, however, exceptional rainfalls in Andalucia meant we could not access the open pit for ore until April 22, which was about one month later than we had originally planned. In the mean time the plant had been processing low quality ore with high sand and clay content that had been stockpiled in the early stages of mining. With ore haulage from the pit now resumed, we will proceed with our commissioning plan. Although we are encouraged by the improvements in the plant and confident that we are on the right track, we require a period of continuous operation with representative ore from the pit to accurately predict the timing of achieving our performance targets.-- Significantly increased mineral reserves and resources at Cobre Panama On March 31, 2010, we announced the results of the front end engineering and design (FEED) study for Cobre Panama. The study showed a significant increase in mineral reserves and resources making Cobre Panama one of the largest undeveloped copper porphyry deposits in the world. Design parameters of the project have also improved considerably due to extensive environmental, social and engineering work and, the project's output and size have been expanded by 25 percent. Substantial progress has also been made in advancing our financing strategy. LS-Nikko confirmed it would retain its 20 percent equity option interest and we continue meeting with other potential partners for the project.-- We issued 9.3 million subscription receipts for gross proceeds of $500 million

On March 31, 2010, we entered into a subscription agreement with a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited (Temasek), under which Temasek has agreed to buy 9.26 million subscription receipts, exchangeable on a one-for-one basis for Inmet common shares, for total proceeds of $500 million. We issued the subscription receipts on April 23, 2010 and the proceeds are being held in escrow until certain conditions relating to the share exchange are met.
 
Full news at http://www.inmetmining.com/Theme/Inmet/files/pdf/2010_Q1%20Press%20Release.pdf
 
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