(Reuters) – Chilean copper producer Codelco posted on Friday a first quarter pre-tax profit of $1.521 billion, a 7% decrease from the year-ago period.

The state-owned company’s quarterly production totaled 364,000 tonnes, down 6% from a year ago. Its direct production cost rose to $152 cents per pound from $132 the year before.

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice and Fabian Cambero; Editing by Christian Plumb)