Anglo American continues its strong operational recovery

Anglo American, in its production report for the third quarter ended 30 September 2020, says its copper production increased by 4% as Collahuasi in Chile increased production by 17% due to ongoing strong performance.

PGMs production was broadly flat as a strong performance from the open pit Mogalakwena mine, with 12% higher palladium production, largely mitigated lower production from the underground Amandelbult.

In Iron ore, the pipeline inspection and maintenance at Minas-Rio in Brazil was completed successfully and on schedule, with operations restarted in early October.

Rough diamond sales improved ahead of the key Q4 holiday selling season for diamond jewellery.

“Anglo American has continued its strong operational recovery, with a 24% increase in production compared to Q2. We are currently operating at about 95% of our normal capacity – testament to our efforts to protect operational continuity across our business, whilst maintaining comprehensive measures across our operations to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of our workforce and host communities, as part of our holistic response to Covid-19,” said Mark Cutifani, Chief Executive of Anglo American

“Continued strong performance at the Collahuasi copper operation in Chile helped mitigate our overall year- on-year production decrease to 3%(1) compared to Q3 2019, despite planned maintenance at Minas-Rio iron ore in Brazil and excluding the effect of the suspended Grosvenor metallurgical coal operation in Australia.

“We have also seen encouraging improvement in demand for rough diamonds as we approach the holiday selling season, although there is still some uncertainty in terms of the timing of a sustained recovery.”

PRODUCTION OUTLOOK SUMMARY

2020 production guidance is summarised as follows:

Diamonds 25-27 Mct (million carats)                          

Copper 630-660 kt (previously 620-670 kt)    

Platinum 1.7-1.8 Moz (previously 1.5-1.7 Moz)  

Palladium 1.1-1.2 Moz (previously 1.0-1.2 Moz)  

Kumba Iron Ore 37-39 Mt                              

Minas-Rio Iron Ore 22-24 Mt                              

Metallurgical Coal 16-18 Mt                              

Thermal Coal 19 Mt (previously 21 Mt)             Nickel 42-44 kt