Earnings season essentially kicked off last week when the first of the Dow Jones Industrial companies, aluminum manufacturer Alcoa (NYSE: AA ) , turned in a performance that handily beat expectations.
On Wednesday, it fell to another major U.S. metals company to tell us about its quarter. Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX ) , the biggest publicly traded copper company, reported a generally solid quarter as well. The company earned $649 million, or $1.40 a share, up 10% from the comparable quarter a year ago. Revenue increased by 5% year-over-year to $3.86 billion.
As CFO Kathleen Quirk noted on the call, copper and gold sales volumes both slid from a year ago on planned sales of lower grades from the company's huge Grasberg facility in Indonesia, along with reduced sales from the South American mines. Molybdenum sales precisely matched last year's levels.
However, price improvements essentially saved the day. Average copper realizations increased to $3.06 per pound, up from $2.22 last year, while the average realized price per ounce for gold rose to $1,234 from $932. The real star was molybdenum, which improved a whopping 80% to $18.18 per pound.
Despite questions about the global economic recovery, Freeport is considering or has undertaken several major development projects. These may include significant work on facilities in the U.S., Chile, Peru, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia.
Freeport continues to make strides since it acquired Phelps Dodge in March 2007. For instance, its total debt is now just $4.8 billion, while its consolidated cash is $3 billion. During the past quarter, $1.3 billion of its debt was repaid. Operating cash flow was $1.1 billion.
Also during the call, CEO Richard Adkerson said, "My perspective on where our company is right now is that ... we have the right assets, this is the right time to have these assets because the commodities that we have are really essential to the world's economy as we go forward."
So, another mining company has checked in with an encouraging quarter and improved prospects. Once we hear from such other members of the segment as Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP ) , Vale (NYSE: VALE ) , and Teck Resources (NYSE: TCK ) in the next two weeks, we'll have an even firmer handle on the worldwide metals outlook. Perhaps that trio will generate the same pop if their earnings are as good as Freeport’s were. In the meantime, I'd urge Fools to study Freeport-McMoRan closely.
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