Newmont Mining 3Q profit more than doubles

DENVER - Newmont Mining Corp. said Thursday its third-quarter profit more than doubled as it sold gold and copper at higher prices and cut costs.

The Denver-based mining giant said net income totaled $388 million, or 79 cents a share, compared with $191 million, or 42 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2008.

Revenue for the three months that ended Sept. 30 jumped 50 percent to $2.05 billion from $1.37 billion, with copper sales more than quadrupling and gold sales rising steadily.

Newmont said it sold 1.3 million ounces of gold at an average price of $964 per ounce and 64 million pounds of copper at an average price of $2.80 per pound.

The company benefited from investors who turned to gold as a haven investment during economic uncertainty.

President and CEO Richard O'Brien said in a statement that the company's effort to control expenses resulted in a 13 percent decline in costs applicable to sales of gold per ounce.

The results easily beat the estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who forecast earnings of 55 cents per share on revenue of $1.72 billion. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

For 2010, Newmont estimates a 5 percent to 10 percent increase in equity gold sales because of an increase in production at its Boddington mine in Australia and at the Batu Hijau mine in Indonesia.

Shares of Newmont rose $1.59, 3.8 percent, to $43.09 in afternoon trading.

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