Teck famous that every one excellent main building at QB was accomplished in Q1, together with the shiploader and the molybdenum plant, which can be ramped up within the second quarter. The corporate additionally marked the primary cargo of focus from its accomplished new port facility within the interval.
“We had sturdy first quarter efficiency throughout our enterprise, producing $1.7 billion of adjusted earnings, with steadily rising quarterly copper manufacturing as QB ramp-up advances,” President and CEO Jonathan Value mentioned.
The Antamina mine, in Peru, and Highland Valley Copper mine, in Canada, additionally had a robust efficiency, he mentioned.
The miner reiterated full-year copper manufacturing of between 465,000 tonnes and 540,000 tonnes, effectively above the 296,500 tonnes it produced in 2023.
It additionally saved QB2’s mission capital price steering unchanged at $8.6 – $8.8 billion.
“The funding case for Teck may be very a lot depending on the corporate hitting the revised ramp-up timeline and capex steering at QB2,” Jefferies analysts wrote in a be aware to traders. “The completion of building and reiterated steering is encouraging.”
Waving coal goodbye
The corporate, one of many high coking coal producers, agreed to promote that enterprise final 12 months to Swiss miner Glencore (LON: GLEN) and focus as an alternative on increasing its copper operations.
Manufacturing of steelmaking coal hit 6 million tonnes, matching 2023 ranges because of the affect of extreme freezing temperatures in mid-January. This led to plant elements freezing and unplanned operational halts. Teck bought 5.9 million tonnes of metallurgical coal within the quarter, down from 6.2 million tonnes the earlier 12 months.
Teck missed first-quarter revenue estimates, partly attributable to weak gross sales volumes of steelmaking coal and declining zinc costs.
It reported earnings of $0.76 per share, which was decrease than the common analyst estimate of C$0.85 per share, based mostly on LSEG information.
Income totalled C$3.99 billion, up from C$3.79 billion within the first quarter of 2023.
