TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold’s first-quarter profit fell by 15% to $648-million or 68c a share, as higher costs and lower realised copper prices worked against improved copper production.

The company late on Wednesday said revenue was somewhat lower at $4.58-billion, down from $4.61-billion in the first quarter of 2012.

Analysts, on average, had expected adjusted earnings of 70c a share on revenue of $4.47-billion.

During the period ended March 31, the company said it had sold 15% more copper at 954-million pounds, up from 827-million pounds a year earlier. However, the realised copper price fell to $3.51/lb from $3.82/lb a year earlier and net cash costs were $1.57/lb, up 25% from $1.26/lb in the same quarter a year earlier.

Freeport said gold sales fell by 26% to 214 000 oz, compared with the 288 000 oz it produced in the same quarter a year earlier. The average realised gold price fell to $1 606/oz, from $1 694/oz.

Capital expenditures in the quarter totalled $805-million.

Excluding pending takeovers, Freeport expected to spend about $4.4-billion this year, including $2.6-billion on significant projects and $1.8-billion in sustaining capital.

During an analyst conference call on Thursday morning, the company said its management team had run the company in the first quarter as planned.

Freeport expected its 2013 production to increase during the later stages of the year, as it would start accessing higher grades of ore from its giant Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia, from the fourth quarter.

Freeport said it planned to sell about 4.3-billion pounds of copper, 1.4-million ounces of gold and 92-million pounds of molybdenum this year. It targeted sales of one-billion pounds of copper, 295 000 oz of gold and 23-million pounds of molybdenum for the second quarter.

During the quarter, the company had completed $10.5-billion in debt financings associated with the pending acquisitions of Plains Exploration & Production Company and McMoRan Exploration, comprising of $4-billion in bank term loans, which would be funded at closing of the transactions and $6.5-billion of senior notes. The weighted-average interest rate of these financings was about 3.1%.

The oil and gas exploration asset acquisitions were expected to close in the second quarter.

At March 31, the company’s consolidated cash totalled $9.6-billion and total debt totalled $10.1-billion.

The company’s stock declined sharply on Wednesday when the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) banned exports of copper and cobalt concentrates to encourage more value-added production. The company operates the Tenke Fungurume mine in the country, in which it owns a 56% interest. However, the order was not expected to affect the DRC’s largest copper producer, Freeport, which already processed its copper inside the country.

The company’s NYSE-listed stock traded in a narrow band on Wednesday morning, selling for $28.06 apiece.