TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Base metals miner First Quantum Minerals on Thursday reported weaker fourth-quarter earnings despite significantly higher output.

The TSX- and LSE-listed firm reported adjusted net earnings of $133.8-million, or $0.23 a share, for the three months ended December 31, 2013, and $539.4-million, or $0.96 a share, for the full year 2013.

These results included recurring acquisition-related unfavourable adjustments of $22.6-million and $69-million, respectively, for the three months and full year.

Analysts had on average expected First Quantum to report earnings of C$0.22 a share.

First Quantum, in March last year, succeeded with its C$5.1-billion hostile takeover bid for rival Inmet Mining, which gave it control of the massive Cobre Panama project.

First Quantum owns mines and projects in Africa, Australia, South America and Europe, and with pro forma revenues forecast to be more than $3.5-billion and a strategic plan to produce more than 1.3-million tons a year of copper by 2018, it was poised to become the largest widely held, pure-play copper producer and one of the top five copper producers in the world.

The Vancouver-based miner also declared a dividend of C$0.093 a share.

First Quantum produced 114 791 t of copper in the quarter, up from 84 918 t in the same period a year earlier. In 2013, it produced 412 281 t of copper at a cash cost of $1.30/lb.

During the quarter, cash costs per pound of copper fell to $1.23 from $1.42, while its average copper price fell to $3.26/lb from $3.46/lb.

First Quantum said that it expected to produce between 418 000 t and 444 000 t of copper in 2014 at a cash cost of between $1.32/lb and $1.48/lb.

The company also said that it planned to spend $2.1-billion on capital projects this year, with $600-million earmarked for Cobre Panama and the Sentinel project, in copper-rich Zambia.

Last month, First Quantum said that it planned to lift the copper production capacity at its flagship Cobre Panama project by 20%; however, the $6.4-billion project would cost $200-million more to build and the start-up would be delayed by a year.

First Quantum’s TSX-listed shares on Thursday trended C$0.35 a share higher to close at C$21.59 apiece.