NEW YORK, July 21 (Reuters) - Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold said on Tuesday second-quarter profit dropped sharply, but cost-cutting measures and a three-fold increase in gold sales helped it match Wall Street earnings estimates, driving up its stock.
Net earnings were $588 million, or $1.38 per share, compared with $947 million, or $2.25 per share in the same quarter of 2008, the Phoenix, Arizona-based mining company said.
Revenue dropped to $3.68 billion, from $5.44 billion.
The net income figure, which excluded unrealized gains and restructuring charges, matched the consensus analyst estimate of 72 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.
As a result, Freeport's stock rose 3.5 percent to $59 in electronic trading before the New York Stock Exchange opened.
Consolidated sales from its mines in the second quarter totaled 1.1 billion pounds of copper, 837,000 ounces of gold and 16 million pounds of molybdenum.
That production compared with 942 million pounds of copper, 265,000 ounces of gold and 20 million pounds of molybdenum for the second quarter of 2008.
The company expects third-quarter sales of about 910 million pounds of copper, 550,000 ounces of gold and 15 million pounds of molybdenum. The full-year estimate is for about 3.9 billion pounds of copper, 2.4 million ounces of gold and 56 million pounds of molybdenum.
In April, Freeport had said it expected to sell more gold in the second quarter and to report stronger earnings for the rest of the year as copper prices inch upward .
Chinese purchases of copper are helping drive the metal's price and Freeport is now mining higher-grade ore at its vast Grasberg gold mine in Indonesia.
During the second quarter, the copper price rose about 22 percent from $1.86 to $2.27 per pound. But that is still way off the price a year earlier, when the metal was selling for around $3.83.
The gold price was virtually unchanged in the second quarter at around $925 per ounce.
In June, Chief Executive Richard Adkerson told Reuters there was no sign of recovery in the developed world that would lead to a restart of its idled U.S. copper operations, despite a pick-up in Chinese buying.
To restart its Morenci, Arizona copper mine, now running at 50 percent of capacity, he said there was "No single trigger."
Fundamental demand for copper remained weak in the U.S., Europe and Japan, and sustained strength in those areas would be necessary to restart its idled capacity. (Reporting by Steve James; Editing by Derek Caney)
