LONDON (ShareCast) - Chile-focused miner Antofagasta enjoyed a better than expected 8.8% rise in net income during the first half thanks to increased copper production and better prices.

Net income for the six months ended 30 June rose to $792.8m from $728.4m a year ago on turnover up nearly 24% to $2.41bn. Pre-tax profit jumped 15.3% to $1.66bn.

Copper production rose 10.1% during the period to 233,600 tonnes in line with forecast, mainly due to increased throughput at Los Pelambres.

“This has been an excellent first half for the group with improved copper production and prices resulting in increased earnings,” said Antofagasta Minerals boss Marcelo Awad.

“Our operations have performed well and despite substantial continuing industry-wide cost pressures including fuel, energy and acid, production levels and costs across the group remain in line with forecast.”

He said fundamentals for both the copper and molybdenum markets remain solid. This is expected to continue well into 2009.

“With our sound financial position, we continue to make good progress with the group's plans for sustainable growth through both brownfield and greenfield projects as well as exploration in Chile and internationally, and this should result in further profitable volume growth from 2010 and beyond.”

The dividend goes up to 6.4 cents per share from 6.2 cent last time.

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