Antofagasta 2021 Profit Soared on Higher Copper Price

By Jaime Llinares Taboada

Antofagasta PLC on Tuesday reported that its profit more than doubled in 2021, reflecting stronger copper prices, and declared a significantly higher final dividend.

The Chile-focused miner made a pretax profit of $3.48 billion last year, up from $1.41 billion in 2020.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization soared 77% to $4.84 billion, slightly below the market consensus of $4.89 billion--provided by the company and averaged from 10 analysts' estimates.

Antofagasta's profits were boosted by a 47% increase in realized copper prices, which offset a 1.7% drop in sales volumes and a 5.3% increase in net cash costs per unit.

The FTSE 100 group declared a final dividend of 118.9 U.S. cents a share, bringing the full-year total to 142.5 cents. This represents 100% of underlying earnings, and is up from 54.7 cents in 2020.

"Our mines and plants performed as planned and we can be proud of our achievements, regardless of the challenges of the year including Covid-19 and continued drought conditions in central Chile," Chief Executive Ivan Arriagada said.

Antofagasta reaffirmed its production and cost guidance for 2022.

Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at [e-mail]; @JaimeLlinaresT

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 22, 2022 02:32 ET (07:32 GMT)

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