26th Oct 2018 07:24
LONDON (Alliance News) - Glencore PLC said on Friday third-quarter coal and copper production was up on last year, as it held its annual guidance, with the exception of oil due to an unplanned stoppage at the Mangara field in Chad.
Own-sourced copper production of 1.1 million tonnes in the three months to September 30 was up 12% on last year, while own-sourced cobalt production was 44% higher than last year at 28,500 tonnes.
Own-source zinc production was down 5% on last year to 786,000 tonnes, reflecting assets sold to Trevali Mining, which was partly offset by a strong mining performance at McArthur River and the restart of mining at Lady Loretta, both in Australia. Adjusting for the disposal, zinc production was up 7%.
Coal production of 96.7 million tonnes was 5.7 million tonnes, or 6%, higher than last year. This was largely due to the acquisition of interests in the HVO and Hail Creek mines in Australia earlier this year, as well as a recovery in Australia from weather-related disruption and industrial action in 2017.
These boosts were, however, countered to some extent by reduced production at Prodeco in Colombia as additional overburden removal was carried out to optimise production and costs going forward.
Entitlement interest oil production of 3.4 million barrels was 14% below last year, due to natural field decline in Equatorial Guinea.
Glencore broadly left its production guidance unchanged for 2018, though oil guidance was lowered by 6% and is now expected to be around 4.6 million barrels due to a one-month unplanned stoppage at the Mangara field in Chad. The field is now back online and fully operational.
The miner plans to produce around 1.5 million tonnes of copper, 132 million tonnes of coal and 1.1 million tonnes of zinc in 2018.
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