12 November 2015
Manila, Philippines

Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation (“Atlas Mining”) reported a consolidated net loss of Php1.3 billion for the first nine months of 2015, compared to a net income of Php841 million for the same period last year. Production volumes and cost efficiency improvements in the third quarter helped to offset the low copper price environment. However, an accounting charge for unrealized foreign exchange losses resulted in a reported third quarter consolidated net loss of Php707 million. Excluding the provision for unrealized foreign exchange losses, consolidated net loss for the nine months was Php569 million and for the third quarter was Php111 million.

Third quarter results showed improved operational performance at Atlas Mining’s wholly-owned subsidiary Carmen Copper Corporation (“Carmen Copper”) with increased production levels of 26.9 million pounds of copper metal concentrate, up from 24.0 million in the second quarter. Copper grade improved to 0.305% from 0.299% and copper recovery improved to 86.2% from 84.6% compared to the second quarter. Additionally, milling tonnage expanded by 8% to 4.6 million tons with average daily throughput benefitting from improvements in maintenance and process efficiencies to deliver 50,537 tonnes per day (tpd), up from 47,227 tpd in the previous quarter.

Copper prices remained low during the third quarter, bringing the year-to-date September average realized copper price to $2.57/lb, 19% lower than $3.16/lb in year-to-date September 2014. Likewise, the average realized gold price dropped 9% to $1,171/oz from $1,290/oz the previous year.
Ongoing cost containment initiatives helped bring total operating cash costs down by 17% to Php6.7 billion in the first nine months and average cash cost per pound of copper dropped to US$1.71/lb from US$1.86/lb in 2014.

Atlas Mining incurred Php1.1 billion of foreign exchange provisions year to date, although it has incurred no actual cash loss on foreign exchange. The company remains naturally hedged as its US dollar denominated loans are matched with its 100% US dollar denominated revenues.