Kazakh miner Kazakhmys posted a 21% fall in first-half earnings per share on Thursday as bad weather hit output, outweighing higher prices.
The group said basic and diluted EPS for the first six months of the year declined to $1.34 from $1.70 last year, below the average forecast from three analysts of $1.42.
The group repeated its expectation that copper output in 2008 would at least equal production from last year.
The firm said it had seen strong demand despite a global credit crisis and related economic downturn.
"The uncertainty in global financial markets does not reflect demand from customers, which has remained consistently robust," chief executive Oleg Novachuk said in a statement.
The world's 10th-biggest copper producer said on 30 July that first-half copper cathode output fell 9% to 174,300 tons, mainly due to severe winter weather in the first quarter.
The company said the government was proposing changes to the tax code that would involve reducing corporate tax, but this would be more than offset by a mining extraction or commodity-related tax.
The firm gave no further information about preliminary merger talks with an unnamed party it announced on 14 July.
At the time, Kazakhmys said discussions were at a very early stage and it was unclear if a transaction would take place.
Sources close to the discussions told Reuters that the suitor was Russia's Metalloinvest, which was seeking a tie-up to gain access to a London listing.
by Eric Onstad, Reuters.
