After reporting strong first-quarter earnings and revenue boosted by higher copper prices, as well as better prices for zinc and oilsands bitumen, Lindsay told a conference call with financial analysts that the long-term outlook for copper looks bright.
"Accelerating copper growth is the cornerstone of our strategy and, by growing our copper production, we rebalance our portfolio towards what's now called 'green metals,'" he said.
Forecasts that call for world copper demand growth of three to 3.5 per cent per year are credible, Lindsay said, in view of its use in renewable energy as pressure rises for global decarbonization.
He said the phone lines at Teck have been lit up by unsolicited offers from potential partners amid an expected copper supply shortage later this decade.
"There are some interesting opportunities whereby we could bring on a partner and they build it with their capital and their people and we're left with half a mine or more for free," he said on the call.
"If that sneaks in between QB2 and QB3, then that's a pretty good situation."
QB2 is Teck's
Final sanctioning of a third phase at the project won't happen until 2026 at the earliest, Lindsay said, after feasibility studies and regulatory approvals are received.
He said new copper mine projects will generally require a commodity price of at least
Teck reported first quarter copper production of 71,700 tonnes, in line with the year-earlier output, but an average price of
The
The result compared with a loss of
Revenue for the recent quarter was nearly
On an adjusted basis, Teck says it earned a profit of
Teck said it has not yet paid a
It commissioned a saturated rock fill water treatment expansion in the first quarter that doubles its capacity to 20 million litres per day.
The company reported sales of 6.2 million tonnes of steelmaking coal in the quarter, in line with guidance, adding it expects higher prices on similar volumes in the second quarter.
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Companies in this story: (TSX:TECK.B)
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