Brazilian mining giant Company Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) announced Thursday that its gross revenue hit a record of 7.68 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2007.

The figure was up by 63.4 percent compared with the same period last year, the company said in a statement.

The company also posted an operational profit of 2.702 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of this year, up by 1.078 billion U.S. dollars from the same period in 2006.

According to CVRD, net earnings reached 2.217 billion U.S. dollars in January to March this year, an increase of 86.9 percent compared with the same period last year. Its investments totaled 1.360 billion U.S. dollars in the period.

CVRD classified the first quarter in 2007 as "the best" in the company's history, with sales of 58.6 million tons of iron ore, 7.9 million tons of pellets, 71 thousand tons of refined nickel, as well as other kinds of metal products.

Source: Xinhua