Mexico City based Grupo Mexico has released its first quarter financial results ending March 31, 2018. The company owns the ASARCO Copper Mines in Arizona. It also owns Copper Mines in the country of Mexico and has other mines located in South America in addition to owning most of the railroads in Mexico.

Stockholders were told the company had a consolidated net profit of $362 million ( U.S) for the quarter which is a 14 percent decrease from this time a year ago. The decline was said to be due to a loss of $148 million in its equity investments. Consolidated revenues for the first quarter were 18 percent higher while the mining division revenue grew 15 percent from higher metal prices. The average price for copper sold during the quarter was $3.14 a pound while cost for producing copper was $1.06 a pound which Grupo claimed was the lowest in the industry. Net consolidated debt for the first 90 days of this year was $6.83 billion (USD).

Copper production was down during the quarter as a result of lower production volumes at the company’s ASARCO division due to landslides on the slopes of the ASARCO Mission Mine south of Tucson Arizona. Production also dropped at its Buenavista Copper Mine in Northern Mexico near the Mexico Arizona border south of Douglas, Arizona. As a result of these unexpected events, Grupo Mexico announced it was cutting its copper production estimates for the year by 40,000 tons to 1,020,000 tons

The $229 million ASARCO copper smelter modification project at Hayden Arizona was said to be almost complete. The multi-million-dollar project was undertaken so the smelter would comply 100 percent with the new environmental regulations.

Total number of employees at all of Grupo Mexico operations during the first quarter was 30,822 an increase of 905 workers from a year ago.

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