china september copper imports?, page-35

Fortescue Metals revealed late Friday night that it earned a gross profit of $US152 million for the September quarter.



But the result was a loss of $US18 million "due in part to a US$68 million increase in the value of the Leucadia Note liability (held by a big New York investor and hedge fund) and a US$25 million foreign exchange adjustment.



"Fortescue is obliged to review the Note valuation at each reporting date.



"The increase in the projected liability has arisen due to a forecast increase in future iron ore prices as provided by an independent expert, the company said in commentary for the September quarter's accounts."



The company said the ramp up of operations continued during the September quarter with a record volume of iron ore mined, processed, railed and shipped.



"This culminated in a total of 9.526 million tonnes "Mt" of Fortescue's ore being shipped out of the Herb Elliott port to a selection of Fortescue's 45 + customers across China.



"There were a number of operating milestones achieved during the quarter with over 10 million tonnes of ore mined during the period pushing the mining run rate to over 40 million tonnes per annum.



"The rail team made 348 train journeys from the Cloudbreak mine to the Herb Elliott port at Port Hedland for a total of 9.562 Mt transported.



"The port team produced a loading record of 182,000 tonnes loaded in one day.



"In total 57 ships were dispatched from Fortescue's port during the quarter."



Fortescue said its exploration team continued its work out at the Solomon Group tenements "with a focus on drilling at the Firetail Bedded Brockman deposit where a current Inferred Resource of 125 Mt's has been estimated and announced thus far (refer ASX release 20 November 2008).



"It is expected that the extensive work done over the quarter will result in an upgrading of the resource estimate over the coming months."



Fortescue said it also continued to deliver on its infrastructure sharing commitment with some 316,000 tonnes of third party ore loaded and shipped out of the Herb Elliott port facility.



On the financial side, Fortescue said it ended the period with a cash balance of US$704 million which represents an increase over the previous quarter of US$50 million.



Fortescue shares rose 8 cents on Friday to end at $4.17. The September quarter result was issued well after the market closed