20th Jul 2016 06:21
LONDON (Alliance News) - Anglo American PLC on Wednesday said the majority of its commodity units suffered falls in production during the first half of the year as the miner lowered its full year guidance in some segments.
In the first half of 2016, Anglo American said production of diamonds, copper, coal and iron ore were all lower year-on-year, while the platinum division and some smaller segments reported minor rises in the period.
Diamond production was down 15% to 13.3 million carats in the half-year from 15.6 million carats, with production in the second quarter of the year falling 19% year-on-year.
Copper production was 4.0% lower at 290,700 tonnes in the six months from 303,600 tonnes a year before, and production in the second quarter was 8.0% lower than a year earlier.
Iron ore from the main Kumba operation was down 21% in the first half to 17.8 million tonnes from 22.6 million tonnes, but Minas-Rio helped to partly offset that fall by reporting a substantial rise in iron ore production to 6.8 million tonnes from only 3.0 million tonnes last year.
Production at Kumba was down 15% year-on-year in the second quarter, whilst production from Minas-Rio was up 91%.
Metallurgical coal production was down 2.0% in the first half to 10.0 million tonnes from 10.2 million tonnes a year before, with production rising 4.0% in the second quarter year-on-year. Thermal coal production was 9.0% lower in the first half at 15.7 million tonnes from 17.3 million tonnes, with production down 6.0% year-on-year in the second quarter.
Anglo American reiterated its full-year guidance across most of its commodity units. However, copper production in 2016 is now expected to be between 570,000 to 600,000 tonnes, rather than the original target of 600,000 to 630,000 tonnes, because of the severe winter weather experienced at Los Bronces, limiting mine extraction.
Copper production also will be lower than originally anticipated in 2017. The new guidance for that year is 570,000 to 600,000 tonnes compared to the previous target of 590,000 to 620,000 tonnes.
Iron ore guidance for Brazil has also been adjusted for 2016, to 15.0 to 17.0 million tonnes, rather than the previous guidance of 15.0 to 18.0 million tonnes, due to the "pit constraint" at Minas-Rio.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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