By Christian Moess Laursen
Anglo American's first-quarter copper and coal production offset slips elsewhere, in particular from its diamonds operations, which also prompted a cut to the full-year target. Here is what the diversified miner had to say on its quarterly output.
On copper:
"Copper production increased by 11%, reflecting higher throughput at Quellaveco [in Peru], despite the impact of planned lower grades, as well as the benefit of higher grades and throughput at Collahuasi and El Soldado [both in Chile]."
"Production from Los Bronces [in Chile] decreased by 8% to 48,700 metric tons, primarily driven by planned lower grade, 0.47% vs. 0.52%, and ore hardness. The unfavorable ore characteristics in the current mining area will continue to impact operations until the next phase of the mine, where the grades are expected to be higher and the ore softer. Development work for this phase is now under way and it is expected to benefit production from early 2027."
"At Collahuasi, attributable production increased by 13% to 64,700 tons, driven by planned higher grades, 1.20% vs. 1.05%."
"Production from El Soldado increased by 44% to 12,700 tons, due to planned higher grade, 0.94% vs. 0.72%, and throughput."
On rough diamonds:
"Rough diamond production decreased by 23% to 6.9 million carats, primarily due to production configuration changes implemented in response to higher than average levels of inventory in the market and the expectation for a gradual recovery in rough diamond demand."
"In Botswana, production decreased by 28% to 5.0 million carats, driven by intentional lower production at Jwaneng and a short-term change in plant feed mix at Orapa to process existing surface stockpiles."
"Production in Namibia was broadly unchanged at 0.6 million carats."
"In South Africa, production decreased by 19% to 0.6 million carats, due to the continued depletion of lower grade surface stockpiles prior to the planned ramp-up of underground operations at Venetia over the next few years."
"Production in Canada decreased by 4% to 0.6 million carats, due to planned treatment of lower grade ore."
On steelmaking coal:
"Steelmaking coal production increased by 7% driven by the Aquila and Capcoal operations, partially offset by the Dawson open cut operation and ongoing challenges with the strata conditions at Moranbah [all in Australia]."
On iron ore:
"Iron ore production was flat, with a strong performance from Minas-Rio [in Brazil], up 4%, offset by a planned decrease at Kumba [in South Africa] to align with third-party logistics constraints."
"Total production [from Kumba] decreased to 9.3 million tons, driven by a 12% decrease at Kolomela to 2.7 million tons due to the reconfiguration of the mine to align production to lower third-party rail capacity and alleviate mine stockpile constraints. Sishen's production increased by 4% to 6.6 million tons, reflecting operational stability."
"Minas-Rio production increased by 4% to 5.9 million tons, reflecting good preparations at the mine at the end of 2023 with high stock levels available to secure the ore feed for 1Q production, despite the highest rainfall in the last six years."
On platinum group metals:
"Production from our platinum group metals operations was 7% lower, reflecting expected lower volumes from Kroondal, which is reported as third-party purchase of concentrate from November 2023, and lower production at Amandelbult [both in South Africa]."
"Own mined production decreased by 14% to 504,300 ounces, primarily due to the disposal of Kroondal in 4Q 2023."
"Excluding Kroondal, production decreased by 6% due to lower production from Amandelbult and Mototolo. Mogalakwena [in South Africa] produced 219,500 ounces, which was flat year-on-year."
"Unki [in South Africa] produced 62,800 ounces, in line with the same period of last year."
"Sales volumes were broadly flat at 707,500 ounces."
On nickel:
"Nickel production was broadly flat at 9,500 tons, as lower throughput at Codemin [in Brazil] was largely offset by the higher grades."
On manganese:
"Manganese ore production decreased by 7% to 783,800 tons, primarily due to the impact of tropical cyclone Megan in mid-March, which has temporarily suspended the Australian operations."
Write to Christian Moess Laursen at christian.moess@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-23-24 0347ET
