By Jaime Llinares Taboada

Anglo American PLC on Thursday reported an on quarter increase in production for the third quarter and downgraded full-year guidance for thermal coal as strikes in Colombia are disrupting operations.

The FTSE 100 mining giant said that production increased 24% on quarter in the three months ended Sept. 30, after excluding the impact of the Grosvenor suspension. However, output was still running behind the numbers seen in the third quarter of 2019 for most of the commodities the group produces.

Diamond production fell 4% from a year earlier, platinum edged down 2% and palladium was flat. Iron ore declined 9% in South Africa and 18% in Brazil. Metallurgical coal slumped 26% and thermal coal was down 11%. Nickel production fell 10%.

Copper output rose 4% year-on-year driven by the Collahuasi operation in Chile and manganese was up 3%.

In addition, Anglo American cut its full-year production guidance for export thermal coal to 19 million metric tons from the previous 21 million tons due to strikes in Colombia.

The company also increased its forecasts for platinum to 1.7 million ounces-1.8 million ounces from 1.5 million ounces-1.7 million ounces. Palladium forecasts were also raised to 1.1 million ounces-1.2 million ounces from 1.0 million ounces-1.2 million ounces. For copper, the full-year production has been tightened to 630,000 metric tons-660,000 tons from 620,000 tons-670,000 tons.

Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at jaime.llinares@wsj.com; @JaimeLlinaresT

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-22-20 0245ET