Copper production at state giant Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile's wholly owned mines slipped 0.5% in the first nine months of 2010 to 1.208 million metric tons from the same period of 2009, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Keller said Thursday.

Codelco's total January-September production, which includes output from the El Abra mine in which it holds a 49% stake, fell to 1.26 million tons from 1.27 million tons. El Abra is operated by 51% shareholder Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX).

With copper averaging $3.25 a pound in the first three quarters of the year, Codelco's pretax profit surged to $4.13 billion from $1.88 billion the same period a year ago, when copper averaged $2.11 a pound.

If Codelco earnings were reported using the same tax requirements as private companies, it would have posted a net profit of $3.29 billion, compared with $1.50 billion.

-By Carolina Pica, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-715-8919; carolina.pica@dowjones.com
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