Lower earnings for Asarco in quarter

As a result of lower copper, molybdenum and zinc prices, New York-listed Asarco has reported lower earnings for the first quarter of 1996.

The company earned US$35.7 million (or US84 cents per share) during the first quarter, compared with US$65.7 million (US$1.56 per share) for the same period in 1995.

Richard Osborne, chairman of Asarco, said lower copper prices reduced net earnings by US$40 million.

For the first three months of 1996, the New York Commodity Exchange listed copper at US$1.18 per lb., zinc at US47 cents per lb. and moly at US$4.07 per lb., compared with last year’s first-quarter prices of US$1.38 for copper, US49 cents for zinc and US$13.77 for moly.

Asarco’s first-quarter results also included a US$7.2-million after-tax gain on the sale, to Mitsui, of a 25% interest in its Silver Bell copper project in Arizona.

A new solvent extraction-electrowinning facility is being constructed there at a cost of US$70 million. The mine is expected to produce 36 million lb.

copper per year once construction is finished in mid-1997.