16th Jul 2015 06:12
LONDON (Alliance News) - Anglo American PLC Thursday said it had a "solid" production performance in the second quarter of 2015 that was in line with its expectations but said it will report a substantial impairment charge in the first half totalling between USD3.0 billion to USD4.0 billion.
The FTSE 100-listed multi-commodity miner said iron ore production from its Kumba operations in South Africa fell 9% year-on-year to 10.4 million tonnes from 11.5 million tonnes due to mining feedstock constraints, but iron ore production from Minas Rio in Brazil totalled 1.8 million wet tonnes, up 55% as it continues to ramp-up.
Export metallurgical coal production was up 9% from the previous quarter to 5.3 million tonnes from 4.8 million tonnes, and export thermal coal production rose 5% to 8.6 million tonnes from 8.1 million tonnes.
Equivalent refined platinum production rose 60% to 572,000 ounces from 358,000 ounces.
However, some areas experienced a fall in production in the quarter.
Copper production was down 5% to 184,500 tonnes from 194,500 tonnes in the previous quarter, and nickel production also fell to 6,300 tonnes from 10,600 tonnes, representing a 41% fall. Diamond production fell by 6% quarter-on-quarter to 8.0 million carats from 8.5 million carats.
"The first six months of 2015 have seen significant further weakness and ongoing volatility in the prices of the bulk commodities, particularly iron ore and metallurgical coal. Anglo American has therefore reviewed its near and longer term commodity price assumptions at the mid-year, while also noting the gradual and ongoing reduction of consensus prices within what remains a wide range of forecasts," said the company.
As a result, Anglo American said it expects to take non-cash impairments totalling USD3.0 billion to USD4.0 billion in the first-half of the year.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Anglo American