24th Apr 2014 07:13
LONDON (Alliance News) - Anglo American PLC Thursday said production has increased across its major operations in its first quarter, with the exception of platinum production, which fell due to strike action in South Africa, leading the company to revise down its 2014 platinum production guidance.
The FTSE 100 miner said its iron ore production increased 10% to 11.3 million tonnes for the three months ended March 31 from 10.3 million tonnes the previous year as its Sishen and Kolomela mines in South Africa performed strongly and as a result of lower production at the Sishen mine in the corresponding period in 2013 due to strike action at the time.
The company said its export metallurgical coal production increased 31% to 6.1 million tonnes from 4.6 million tonnes and its export thermal coal production increased 14% to 7.9 million tonnes from 6.9 million tonnes as a range of productivity improvements helped the company.
Anglo American said its copper production increased by 18% to 202,000 tonnes from 170,500 tonnes with particular improvements at its Los Bronces and Collahuasi sites in Chile, and its nickel production increased by 48% to 9,200 tonnes from 6,200 tonnes driven by improved operational stability at its Barro Alto site in Brazil.
The company added that its diamond production increased by 18% to 7.5 million carats from 6.4 million carats due to the impact of planned maintenance at its Orapa site in Botswana during the corresponding quarter and recovery of certain operations at its Jwaneng site, which also is in Botswana.
However, the company said its platinum equivalent refined production decreased by 39% to 357,000 ounces from 583,000 ounces, as a result of ongoing industrial action at its Rustenburg, Amandelbult and Union mines in South Africa.
The company said that therefore it has now revised down its 2014 platinum equivalent refined production guidance to roughly 2.1 million ounces, from its previous guidance of 2.3 to 2.4 million ounces.
The news comes days after media reports that the company is preparing the way to exit part of its South African platinum business, after three months of labour strikes in the region.
The Financial Times said on Monday that the company is in talks with the South African government to try to eventually withdraw from its deep platinum mines at Rustenburg.
The platinum sector in South Africa has been massively affected by three months of strikes at mines owned by Lonmin PLC, Impala Platinum and Anglo American, as the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union in the country attempts to achieve significantly better wages.
The Financial Times said no decision had yet been taken on how to exit Rustenburg and Anglo is not in specific talks over the sale, which could turn out to be a lengthy process. Anglo American made no comment on the subject in its statement Thursday.
In February, the company announced that it had swung to a pretax profit in 2013 as improved production and weakening producer currencies helped company finances.
Anglo American posted a pretax profit of USD1.70 billion for 2013, compared from a pretax loss of USD171 million the previous year.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be774b9e-c648-11e3-ba0e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2zajjCaiA
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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