Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation posted nearly a three fold increase in earnings for the first semester of the year compared to the same period last year.

The firm said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange that its consolidated net income for the first 6 months of the year reached PHP 2.028 billion or 2.9 times the PHP 687 million in the comparable period a year ago. This result was driven primarily by the performance of Atlas' subsidiary Carmen Copper Corporation.

Carmen Copper's net income reached PHP 2.086 billion in the H1 or 2.6 times its net income in the same period in the previous year. Consolidated revenues reached PHP 6.738 billion in the first semester rising from the PHP 4.207 billion in the same period last year. Copper sales of Carmen Copper stood at PHP 6.460 billion up 62% from the PHP 3.992 billion last year.

Carmen Copper's sales of gold was also at a higher PHP 254.923 million compared to the PHP 207.278 million a year ago while its revenues from the sale of magnetite amounted to PHP 15 million in the H1 compared no recorded sales of such in the same period last year.

Atlas Consolidated said Carmen Copper's shipments of copper rose 30 million to 34.7 million pounds of copper from 26.6 million last year. It sold copper at an average price of USD 9,181 per tonne.

(Sourced from www.bworldonline.com)