TSX slightly up, April 26-30

The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.03% to 19,108.33 during the April 26-30 trading week. The S&P/TSX Global Mining Index slipped 3.78% to 106.88, and the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index dropped 0.55% to 169.02. Spot gold declined by US$7.80 per oz., or 0.44%, to US$1,769.10 per oz., and the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index fell 5.91% to 294.61.

Teck Resources jumped $1.05 to $34.00 per share. The company reported first-quarter adjusted profit attributable to shareholders of $326 million or 61¢ per share, a 247% increase from the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $967 million, a 59% year-on-year increase. Canada’s largest diversified miner has benefited from rising copper prices, which have more than doubled from their Covid-lows, jumping to US$4.49 per lb. in New York on April 27, their highest price since 2011. Teck attributed the jump in profit not only to higher copper prices but also to higher prices for zinc and blended bitumen. “Strong first-quarter operational performance, in line with plan, and higher commodity prices, contributed to a very solid start to 2021,” Don Lindsay, Teck’s CEO stated in a press release. The company’s 2021 production guidance remains unchanged at 275,000-290,000 tonnes of copper and 585,000-610,000 tonnes of zinc. 

Shares of Ero Copper climbed 85¢ to $24.27. The company has identified a new zone of mineralisation at its Vermelhos project, an underground mine under development in Brazil and part of the company’s MCSA mining complex, which includes the Pilar underground mine and the Surubim open-pit mine, in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia. The new discovery, named the Novo zone, lies about 200 metres below the existing infrastructure of the Vermelhos mine. In addition to the Novo zone, Ero Copper has identified two new mineralised systems, C4, about 13 km southwest of the Subrahim mine, and Terra do Sal, 8 km southeast of Subrahim, both of which it believes “have excellent potential to host high-grade massive sulphide mineralization as well as disseminated near-surface mineralization.” Farooq Hamed of Raymond James raised his target price following the news to $28 per share from $27 per share and has an outperform rating on the company’s stock.

First Quantum Minerals‘ shares increased by 76¢ to $28.33. The company reported record first quarter copper production from its Cobre Panama mine in Panama of 84,042 tonnes, a 46% year-on-year increase. Total copper production in the first quarter reached 205,064 tonnes, an increase of 5% year-on-year. The company reported gold production of 78,000 oz., up 13% year-on-year, and nickel production of 4,642 tonnes from its Ravensthorpe nickel mine in Australia, which resumed operations in March 2020 after being placed on care and maintenance in October 2017. The company’s 2021 production guidance is for 785,000-850,000 tonnes of copper, 280,000-300,000 oz. gold, and 23,000-27,000 tonnes nickel.