July 27, 2017 - Canadian mining company Teck Resources Ltd reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit of C$1 per share on Thursday, helped by higher prices of steelmaking coal and a weak Canadian dollar.

Adjusted profit came in at C$577 million, or C$1 per share, for the second quarter ended June 30, compared with C$15 million, or 3 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier.

On average, analysts had expected Vancouver-based Teck to report earnings of 90 Canadian cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company said its steelmaking coal business unit produced 6.8 million tonnes in the quarter, compared with 6.7 million tonnes a year ago.

Average realized steelmaking coal price per tonne jumped to C$229 from C$107, pushing revenue from the business by 135 percent to C$1.6 billion.

Teck said spot prices of steelmaking coal fell from above $300 per tonne in mid-April after Cyclone Debbie disrupted key Australian supplies and are now trading above $170 per tonne.

The company had cautioned on June 15 that it expected a bigger-than-usual differential compared to the industry benchmark as steel mills had filled their requirements immediately following the cyclone, resulting in very few prime hard coking coal spot sales after mid-April.

Steelmaking coal prices have been on a roller-coaster ride since the beginning of last year, soaring from below $80 a tonne to nearly $300 on the back of Chinese restrictions on domestic production and cyclone disruptions.

The company expects coal sales in the third quarter to reach at least 7.0 million tonnes.

Teck produced 70,000 tonnes of copper and 158,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate in the second quarter.

($1 = 1.2441 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Ishita Chigilli Palli and Mekhla Raina; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)