20th Jan 2021 06:54
(Alliance News) - BHP Group PLC on Wednesday said it upped its annual guidance in some areas for 2021 following mixed production results for the first half of its financial year.
In the six months to end December, the Australian blue-chip miner saw petroleum production fall 12% year-on-year to 50.5 million barrels of oil equivalent from 57.4 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Copper production was down 5.0% to 841,000 tonnes from 885,400 tonnes a year prior.
Iron ore production increased 5.8% year-on-year to 128.4 million tonnes from 121.4 million tonnes.
Metallurgical coal production was down 5.4% to 19.2 million tonnes from 20.3 million tonnes a year before.
Chief Executive Mike Henry said: "BHP delivered strong safety and operational performance in the first half of the 2021 financial year, including record production at Western Australia iron ore and concentrator throughput at Escondida."
"We are well positioned to sustainably grow shareholder and social value as the global economy recovers from the pandemic," he added.
Production guidance for 2021 sees petroleum unchanged at a range of between 95 million and 102 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Copper guidance tightened to between 1.51 million and 1.65 million tonnes, from between 1.48 million and 1.65 million tonnes.
Iron ore guidance increased to between 245 million tonnes and 255 million tonnes, from between 244 million and 253 million tonnes.
Metallurgical coal guidance has remained at between 40 million and 44 million tonnes.
Results for the half are due on February 16.
BHP shares were up 0.9% at AUD46.30 in Sydney on Wednesday.
By Greg Roxburgh; [email protected]
Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
BHP Group