An aerial view of the Cobre Panama open-pit copper development in Donoso, Panama.
Hostile takeover target Inmet Mining Corp. reported lower net income for the fourth quarter of 2012 on after-tax foreign exchange losses.
The Toronto-based miner had a profit of $38.8-million or 56 cents per share for the quarter, down from $46.5-million or 67 cents per share in the year earlier period.
That widely missed the $1.17 per share analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting.
Gross sales were up 11 per cent to $259.9-million in the quarter from $233.4-million during the same 2011 period.
Inmet produced five per cent more copper, 16 per cent more zinc and six per cent more pyrite than it did a year earlier.
The $19-million foreign exchange loss amounted to 27 cents per share, mainly on U.S. cash held in euro-based entities.
Excess cash balances are held in U.S. currency, which Inmet plans to use to construct its Cobre Panama project.
Inmet's board had rejected a hostile $5.1-billion takeover bid by First Quantum Minerals Ltd. That bid expires at on Feb. 27.
Inmet shares closed down 2.4 per cent to $66.93 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Inmet is a Canadian-based global mining company that produces copper and zinc. It has three wholly-owned mining operations in Turkey, Spain and Finland, along with an 80 per cent interest in Cobre Panama currently under construction.