TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed HudBay Minerals late on Wednesday reported a second-quarter loss of $52.7-million, or $0.31 a share, compared with a net loss of $29.6-million, or $0.17 a share, in the same period a year earlier, as lower metals prices and higher mining costs impacted on profit.

HudBay reported revenue for the three months ended June 30 of $130.7-million, $59.2-million lower than the $189.85-million reported a year earlier. The decline was mainly attributable to lower sales volumes, as a result of the permanent closures of Hudbay's Trout Lake and Chisel North mines, and lower metals prices.

The company said copper sales volumes were down to 14.9-million pounds, from 28.4-million pounds in the comparable year-earlier period.

"We remain focused on achieving our growth objectives, meeting our production and cost targets at our operations and managing future expenditures prudently so we can maintain our strong liquidity position during the execution of our construction programmes," president and CEO David Garofalo said.

During the period, the cash cost per pound of copper sold rose 250% to $2.22/lb from $0.63/lb a year earlier, mainly as a result of deliveries to Silver Wheaton of gold and silver having started under the 777 stream agreement inked in August 2012.

Consolidated mine operating costs per tonne rose 17% at its Manitoba operations on account of higher costs from initial production at the Lalor and 777 North mines.

The operating cost per tonne of ore processed at the Flin Flon concentrator in the period increased 27%, mainly owing to reduced ore throughput following the closure of the Trout Lake mine.

Operating costs at the Snow Lake concentrator for the period rose 6%, as a result of higher cost of materials as well as training in preparation for a seven-day-per-week operation, which started on April 1.

Construction costs on its $1.5-billion Constancia copper project, in Peru, had increased by 15%. The most significant contributor to the estimated cost escalation related to heavy civil earthworks, which were affected by higher-than-estimated volumes of material to be moved, other geotechnical issues and lower than expected wet-weather productivity.

During the quarter, HudBay had implemented spending reductions totalling about $100-million over the rest of 2013 and into 2014, including exploration cuts of $30-million, as well as deferrals of about $20-million in sustaining capital expenditures to beyond 2014.

HudBay had also lowered its twice-yearly dividend to $0.01 a share.

As part of its cost-saving strategy, the miner would defer about $325-million of the capital cost for the construction of the new Lalor concentrator, as a planned $9-million expansion to double the capacity of its Snow Lake concentrator in Manitoba was expected to make up for the production from the new Lalor mine until the end of 2016.

At the end of the quarter, the company had total available and committed liquidity of about $1.5-billion, including cash and cash equivalents of about $1.1-billion.

The company’s shares traded 6.14% lower on Thursday morning at C$6.49 apiece.