31st Oct 2013 08:39
LONDON (Alliance News) - Glencore Xstrata PLC Thursday announced positive production results in its third quarter across most of its operations, with specific gains in copper, gold and silver.
The FTSE 100 commodities producer said its copper production increased 30% to 695,600 tonnes for the three months ended September 30 from 536,800 tonnes the previous year.
The company also reported that its nine-month total own-sourced copper production grew 23% year-over-year to 1.07 million tonnes, driven by key growth projects at its African Katanga, Mutanda, Antapaccay and Australian Ernest Henry mines and improved production from its Chilean Collahuasi copper operations.
The group's share of copper production at Collahuasi was 130,800 tonnes in the first nine months of the year, a 43% increase over last year. Production since June reflected a marked improvement over the first five months of 2013 and the levels achieved in 2012, reflecting the strong ramp up following restart of the SAG mill and a return to higher ore grades.
The company said its total gold production increased 20% to 314,000 ounces in its third quarter compared to 262,000 ounces the previous year as a continued ramp up of its Vasilkovskoye site in Kazakhstan along with production from two recently acquired mines, Komarovskoye and Raigorodok added to the company's gold output.
Glencore also said its silver production increased 13% to 19.8 million ounces and lead contained production increased 9% to 159,200 tonnes for the three month period compared to the previous year.
The company said that lost volumes of zinc from its Brunswick and Perseverance sites, which ceased production in June, meant that its third quarter zinc production fell 7% to 553,700 tonnes from 594,300 tonnes the previous year.
Glencore said its nickel production fell 5.% to 37,300 ounces as the company attempted to offset losses from its Australian XNA Falcondo site, which was placed in care and maintenance in October, with higher production from its own Raglan mine in Canada.
The company's total coal production increased 6% in the nine months to 105.7 million tonnes compared to the previous year as growth projects at multiple sites offset a prolonged miners strike at its Carrejon mine in Colombia during the first quarter.
Glencore also said its total oil production fell 7% during the nine month period to 15.8 million barrels as its Equatorial Guinea operations produced 15% below the previous year, consistent with expectations.
The company's marketing profitability continued to be broadly in line with views, with metals and energy remaining the strongest. However Glencore said it is also witnessing an improvement in agricultural performance.
Glencore shares were up 0.2% to 345.89 pence in early trading Thursday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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