Each year, Acme Company extracts 12,000 pounds of mineral XZ…
Each year, Acme Company extracts 12,000 pounds of mineral XZ from its mine at a cost of $25 per pound. Acme can sell the raw XZ for $31 a pound or process it further into metal ingots. The incremental variable costs of selling raw XZ are $4 per pound and there are no incremental fixed costs. It takes three pounds of XZ to make one ingot, which Acme can sell for $225 per ingot. The incremental variable costs are $48 per ingot and the annual traceable fixed costs related to producing and selling ingots include $258,000 of salaries and $103,000 of depreciation on production equipment that has no resale value. Customer demand for ingots is 4,000 units per year. How much higher is Acme’s annual operating income of producing and sells ingots as opposed to selling the raw XZ as is? Round to the nearest whole dollar and do not enter a dollar sign or a decimal point (e.g., enter 89, not $89.00).