By Jeffrey Sparshott
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Kazakhmys PLC (KAZ.LN), Kazakhstan's biggest copper producer, Thursday said third quarter copper cathode production fell 13.5% but that it remained on track to hit its full-year output target of 315,000 metric tons.
Production of copper cathode from its own concentrate was 82,200 tons during the three months to Sept. 30, compared with 95,000 tons during the same period a year earlier.
The metal accounted for 63% of the company's first-half earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda. Kazakhmys also produces gold, zinc and silver, as well as electricity at the country's biggest power station.
Kazakhmys earlier this year closed high-cost mines, and cut output and capital expenditure as copper demand and prices tumbled. But markets have since rebounded, and the company in August said it expects to exceed the 300,000-ton copper production target it had set earlier in the year by 15,000 tons.
Kazakhmys' shares closed at 1,113 pence Wednesday, up nearly fivefold from 231 pence at the start of the year.
Company Web site: www.kazakhmys.com
-By Jeffrey Sparshott, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)207 842 9347; jeffrey.sparshott@dowjones.com