Jiangxi Copper Company Limited and Western Mining Company Limited reported lower net profits in the H1 of 2009 due to low nonferrous metal product prices in the period.

Jiangxi Copper saw its net profit and total sales revenue slide by 60.99% and 23.57% YoY respectively to CNY 1.2 billion and CNY 21.35 billion in the first 6 months of 2009. The company attributed the falls to sluggish copper and sulfuric acid prices during the period compared to those of the previous year.

Jiangxi Copper produced 370,000 tonnes of refined copper, 215,000 tonnes of copper wire and rod, 10.01 tonnes of gold, 239 tonnes of silver and 1.1 million tonnes of sulfuric acid in the 6 month period.

Western Mining, a major Chinese lead and zinc miner and smelter saw its net profit and total sales revenue tumble by 93.67% and 29.75% YoY respectively to CNY 45.62 million and CNY 4.39 billion in the H1 of 2009 on low nonferrous metal product prices in the period. Western Mining also incurred a loss of CNY 106 million through domestic futures hedging in the 6 month period.

The company produced 30,900 tonnes of lead concentrate, 40,900 tonnes of zinc concentrate, 9,200 tonnes of copper concentrate, 239,200 tonnes of iron ore, 48,600 tonnes of primary aluminum, 24,500 tonnes of refined zinc, 7,400 tonnes of manganese and 12,100 tonnes of refined copper from January to June.

Western Mining predicted that its net profit for the whole of 2009 will plummet by more than 50% YoY due to the drop in product prices compared to the previous year.

(Sourced from Interfax of China)