Carlos Slim has often been described as having a Midas touch but his very own gold mining company, Minera Frisco, didn’t make much money in the third quarter from producing the yellow metal.
 
Frisco did make a net profit of $89m, up from a loss that was almost twice as big a year earlier. But the net result would have been entirely flat had it not been for gains from financial instruments such as futures.
 
Production of gold, silver, zinc and lead all fell in the quarter, and so did prices. So much for the Midas touch.
 
But Slim is clearly in for the long run in mining. Frisco was spun off from his Carso group a year and a half ago. Now it is his number three company, after his telecom América Móvil and the Inbursa financial group, often popularly referred to as Carlos’s pocket-book.
 
The pocket-book was used early this month, when Frisco paid $750m in cash to acquire Canada’s AuRico Gold, with its prime asset, the Ocampo mine in the western Sierra Madre within the northern border state of Chihuahua.
 
The sale, which includes two or three exploration projects, is due to be sealed by the end of the year. Perhaps Slim may be no Midas but, with luck, Frisco could yet find treasure in the Sierra Madre.