Cyprus pulls through despite flat prices

Despite dwindling gold and copper prices, Cyprus Amax Minerals (CYM-N) landed in the black last year.

The company earned US$69 million (or 54cents per share) on revenue of US$3.3 billion in 1997, compared with US$77 million (62cents per share) on US$2.8 billion in the previous year.

The 1997 results include an after-tax charge of US$79 million from the coal business, as well as an after-tax gain of US$19 million on the sale of the Kubaka gold mine in Russia to Amax Gold (AU-N).

For the fourth quarter, Cyprus reported a loss of US$97 million ($1.09 per share), compared with a loss of US$52 million (61cents per share) for the same period last year. The loss is attributed chiefly to price dips for copper and gold.

The company produced 256 million lbs. copper during the quarter, and more than 1 billion lbs. for the year, representing a 34% increase over 1996.

Through 59%-owned Amax Gold, the company produced 216,000 oz. gold during the fourth quarter, bringing the yearly total to 730,000 oz. Cash costs dropped to US$198 per oz., reflecting production at the Fort Knox mine in Alaska and Kubaka mine in Russia.

This year, the company plans to carry out exploration of several projects, including:

* a property south of the Chilean copper mine known as El Abra; * the Frieda River copper-gold project in Papua New Guinea; and *the Kansanshi copper project in Zambia.