Teck Resources reports Q3 profit of $609 million, revenue hits $2.13 billion

By The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TCK-B.TO) reported Wednesday a profit of $609 million as revenue climbed higher, boosted by its acquisition of Fording Canadian Coal Trust last year.

The miner said its profit amounted to $1.07 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $424 million or 95 cents per diluted share a year ago.

Excluding one-time items including discontinued operations and foreign exchange gains on debt, Teck said it earned $270 million for the quarter compared with $529 million a year ago.

Revenue totalled $2.13 billion, up from $1.74 billion.

The average analyst estimate, which usually excludes one-time items, was for earnings of 50 cents per share on $2.22 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.

"Our major operations continue to perform well and produced record revenues of $2.1 billion in the third quarter despite coal and zinc prices that were less than 50 per cent of previous highs," Teck president and chief executive Don Lindsay said in a statement.

Teck has been selling assets and issuing shares to help reduce the roughly $10 billion in debt taken on as part of the Fording deal.

"Our total debt has now been reduced by $5 billion since we completed the Fording transaction in October 2008," Lindsay said.

"We expect further reductions of approximately $1.1 billion upon the completion of previously announced asset sales expected later this year and early 2010."

Teck's class B shares closed down $2.34 at $30.72 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday.