ANFGF - Antofagasta's full-year profit drops as copper production slumps

Antofagasta ( OTC:ANFGF ) reported Tuesday its FY 2022 pretax profit fell 26% to $2.56B from $3.48B in the year-earlier quarter, and revenues slid 22% to 5.86B from $7.47B a year ago.

The Chilean miner's EBITDA for 2022 sank to $2.9B from $4.84B a year earlier, as high input costs, reduced copper grades and a drought in Chile weighed on copper production.

Full-year copper production fell 10% to 646.2K metric tons, as copper sales slid 12% to 642.5K tons and realized copper prices tumbled 12%, while gold production plunged 30% Y/Y to 176.8K oz.

The weaker production reflected "the expected continuing drought in Chile and the effects of increased input prices, and the pipeline incident at Los Pelambres," CEO Ivan Arriagada said.

Antofagasta ( OTC:ANFGF ) said it expects the Los Pelambres expansion will be in production during Q2 including the new desalination plant which will significantly alleviate water constraints suffered during the past 18 months.

Also, the miner expects copper and by-product production will increase over the course of 2023, with cash costs before by-product credits remaining in line with 2022.

Antofagasta ( OTC:ANFGF ) now expects 2023 copper production of 670K-710K metric tons and gold output of 220K-240K oz.

Antofagasta ( OTC:ANFGF ) is a "quality copper pure play" with a clear runway for production growth after years of development capex, The Global Investor writes in an analysis published on Seeking Alpha .

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