Codelco Chairman Oscar Landerretche Moreno revealed that, due to higher copper prices, the miner made a profit of US$2.88 billion in 2017, Mining.com reported March 16, citing a report published in local paper La Tercera.
The state-owned miner had posted a pretax profit of US$435 million for 2016, swinging year over year from a loss of US$2.19 billion.
Moreno revealed the 2017 profit figures while speaking to investors and students at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Chile.
Citing preliminary estimates, Moreno said the company's production costs increased 7.8% on a yearly basis from US$1.26/lb of copper in 2016. Codelco has been focused on upgrading aging infrastructure and dealing with dwindling ore grades with a US$18 billion investment plan.
