The reputation of Canadians, throughout Canada’s existence as a nation, has been for being "hewers of wood and drawers of water", deriving much of its wealth as a society from the vast natural resources with which they have been so gloriously endowed. And the movers and shakers in the financial and equity world have traditionally been among the miners, oil producers, and other resource companies.
Vancouver-based Teck Resources Limited (T.TCK.B) has lately been among the bellwether resource companies of whom Canadians take notice. The diversified company, which has offices in Chile, Peru, China, and throughout the United States, reported first-quarter earnings this week equity players the world over ignore at their peril.
On April 24, Teck announced record first-quarter revenues of $2.5 billion and and gross profits $918 million. Even more mouth-watering; profit attributable to shareholders was $218 million and Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) was $781 million.
The parade of good news did not end there. In early April, Teck closed its acquisition of SilverBirch Energy Corporation for a net cash outlay of $432 million, giving the firm full ownership of the Frontier oil sands project, increasing its contingent bitumen resources by 67% to 3.5 billion barrels.
Moreover, coal production increased to 6.3 million tonnes in the quarter, up 43% from the first quarter of 2011, the result of an aggressive expansion program.
Teck prides itself on being, to quote the front of its webpage, "a diversified resource company committed to responsible mining and mineral development with business units focused on copper, steelmaking coal, zinc and energy, and is also a significant producer of specialty metals such as germanium and indium."
Teck owns, or has an interest in, 13 mines in Canada, the U.S., Chile and Peru, as well as one metallurgical complex. Teck’s search continues actively for copper, zinc and gold in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and Africa.
Teck claims a position as the largest producer of steelmaking coal in North America, and the second largest exporter of seaborne steelmaking coal in the world, the third largest mine producer of zinc in the world, and an up-and-comer in the copper world, which includes mines in Chile, Peru, northern and western Canada and in Newfoundland.
The news drove the stock price back up towards highs it hadn’t seen since early May of last year. Teck gained more than two dollars on the week, to close Friday at $36.91, still giving the price room for improvement toward a 52-week high above $53, again, achieved in early May 2011. Friday’s price was still well above the gulch of $27.39 in early October.
With the company appearing to click on all cylinders, on all of its facilities in all corners of the globe, the direction appears to be determinedly up for the foreseeable future.
