DENVER – Newmont Mining Corp. said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit soared along with gold and copper prices.
Gold prices rose steadily throughout 2009, hitting a peak of $1,227.50 an ounce in early December. Copper prices increased about 18 percent during the fourth quarter.
The Denver mining giant’s two primary products are key materials both for investors, who buy gold as a hedge against inflation, and consumers, whose electronics and homes are loaded with copper wires and pipes.
Newmont earned $558 million, or $1.13 per share, compared with $4 million, or a penny a share, during the same period last year.
Adjusted profit was $1.14 per share, easily beating the 79 cents-per-share estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. These estimates normally remove one-time items.