17th Jul 2014 07:04
LONDON (Alliance News) - Anglo American PLC Thursday said its platinum production fell 40% in the second quarter as the now-finished platinum miners strike in South Africa hurt operations, but the majority of its other operations saw production increases during the period.
The FTSE 100 miner said its platinum production fell 40% to 358,000 ounces for the three months ended June 30 from 594,000 during the same period the previous year as workers from the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union only returned to work at the end of June.
The five-month action over wages and conditions cost the major platinum miners in South Africa over ZAR24 billion, according to the companies and significantly reduced operations and output.
The disputes were settled under a new three-year agreement which increased the company's underground basic salary by ZAR1,000 per month for each year of the deal, while employees in its C-band group would receive wage increases of 8% in year 1 and 7.5% in years 2 and 3.
However, days after the end of the strike, a report in the Sunday Times said that Anglo American had put some of its platinum mines in South Africa up for sale in order to dispose of underperforming assets as part of a GBP2.35 billion clearout
Earmarked for disposal are the company?s oldest and deepest shafts in the impoverished mining region of Rustenberg, South Africa, some of which have been in operation since the 1950s, said the Sunday Times.
On Thursday, Anglo American said its iron ore production increased 2% to 11.5 million tonnes during the quarter from 11.3 million tonnes following strong performance at both its Sishen and Kolomela mines in South Africa.
The company said its export metallurgical coal production increased 10% to 4.8 million tonnes due mainly to productivity improvements at open cut operations and its Grasstree project in Australia. However, the company's export thermal coal production fell 5% to 8.1 million tonnes due to lower production from its Drayton mine in Australia.
Anglo American said its copper production increased 6% to 194,400 tonnes as lower production from its El Soldado site in Chile was offset by improved production from its Los Bronces and Collahuasi sites in Chile due to higher throughput.
The company's nickel operations saw strong growth of 25% to 10,600 tonnes driven by continued improved operational stability at its Barro Alto site in Brazil, prior to its planned rebuild of the furnaces at the site, which is due to start in the second half of the year.
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.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/Industry/article1428092.ece
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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