04:44 PM EDT, 10/31/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Capstone Copper ( CSCCF ) on Thursday said it swung to a third-quarter profit as "meaningful milestones" put it on track for the fourth quarter to be its strongest of the year.

The company reported an adjusted profit, excluding most one-time items, of US$25.4 million, or US$0.03 per share, in the quarter, compared to adjusted loss of US$15.8 million, or US$0.02, in the year-prior period.

Adjusted EBITDA nearly doubled to US$120.8 million from US$62.8 million. It said the increase in adjusted EBITDA was primarily driven by higher copper production and prices.

Copper production totaled 47,460 tonnes at C1 cash costs of US$2.83 per payable pound of copper produced.

Chief executive John MacKenzie in a statement said, "The third quarter marked an important step in the transformation of our business, with tangible delivery on our peer leading growth. Our operations in Chile exhibited meaningful milestones at both our flagship Mantoverde Development Project (where we achieved commercial production) and at Mantos Blancos (which has now demonstrated that it is capable of delivering its nameplate capacity).

"We expect Q4 to be our strongest quarter of the year, providing a glimpse of the future Capstone with a larger production base and lower unit operating costs. During the past few months, we also released studies for our Mantoverde Optimized and Santo Domingo projects, and announced a leadership succession plan, all of which have positioned us extremely well for our next phase of growth."

Capstone shares closed down $0.28 to $9.63 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.