Mining Profits...Investing In Industrial Metals

Mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. said Tuesday that third-quarter earnings more than doubled on sharply higher copper and gold prices.

Net income rose to $350.7 million, $1.67 per share, from $165.8 million, or 86 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding charges and gains on debt reduction, preferred share redemption and land sales, the company earned $1.73 per share in the latest period.

Revenue grew to $1.64 billion from $983.3 million last year.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for profit of $1.59 per share on sales of $1.31 billion.

The company said average realized prices per pound of copper rose to $3.43 from $1.73 last year, and to $3.38 from $1.67 for gold.

Third-quarter sales for PT Freeport Indonesia, the company's Indonesian mining unit, totaled 323.6 million pounds of copper and 478.0 thousand ounces of gold, down from last year's sales, but above revised estimates the company supplied in July of 280.0 million pounds of copper and 320.0 thousand ounces of gold. The higher-than-expected sales reflect the mining of a high-grade section of the Grasberg pit previously scheduled to be mined in future periods.

The company forecasts annual sales for 2006 of about 1.2 billion pounds of copper and 1.7 million ounces of gold, including 415 million pounds of copper and 470 thousand ounces of gold estimated for the fourth quarter.