US mining and oil heavyweight Freeport-McMoRan made a $1.85billion loss in the second quarter of 2015.
The company posted $2billion of write-downs related to its oil and gas properties and other one-off items.
Richard Adkerson, chief executive, said: “Our second-quarter results reflect strong operating performance in our global mining business, and solid production results and continued positive drilling and development results in our oil and gas operations.
“We remain focused on managing our costs and capital expenditures under volatile market conditions as we seek to strengthen our balance sheet and build values from our strong portfolio of resources.”
The consolidated sales for the Phoenix-based company totaled 964 million pounds of copper, 352 thousand ounces of gold, 23 million pounds of molybdenum and 13.1 million barrels of oil equivalents (MMBOE) for second-quarter 2015, compared with 968 million pounds of copper, 159 thousand ounces of gold, 25 million pounds of molybdenum and 16 MMBOE for the same period in 2014.
The company posted $2 billion of write-downs related to its oil-and-gas properties and other one-off items. Adjusted per-share earnings bettered analyst forecasts, and shares rose to $15.25.