Freeport-McMoRan 1Q earns surge as demand lifts copper, gold

"The U.S. is a relatively small factor in the marketplace," Adkerson said in the conference call. "The market continues to be very tight globally."

The price of copper rose 27 percent and the price of gold rose 9.2 percent during the quarter on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The company said in a statement it would "focus on maximizing current production volumes" to meet the high demand.

The company's mines posted sales in the first quarter of 911 million pounds of copper and 280,000 ounces of gold. That's down from 1 billion pounds of copper and 977,000 ounces of gold in first-quarter 2007 figures that include Phelps Dodge sales.

The company said sales volumes fell because of mining in a lower ore grade section of the Grasberg open pit during the first half of 2008. Freeport expects to continue mining the low-grade section in the second quarter, followed by a higher-grade section in the second half of 2008.

"This was a record quarter," Adkerson said. "And yet you can see from a volume standpoint, we're looking to have significantly stronger quarters in the second half of the year."

In the second quarter, Freeport expects its mines to sell 930 million pounds of copper, 225,000 ounces of gold and 18 million pounds of molybdenum. For the year, Freeport expects to sell about 4.2 billion pounds of copper, 1.4 million ounces of gold and 75 million pounds of molybdenum.

The company's debt climbed to $7.6 billion as of March 31, compared with $7.2 billion as of Dec. 31. However, its consolidated cash increased to $1.8 billion on March 31, compared with $1.6 billion three months earlier.

___

On the Net: