(Alliance News) - Anglo American PLC on Tuesday reported a largely strong production performance for the first half of 2021, with rises in copper and diamonds.
For the six months ended June 20, the London and Johannesburg-listed miner posted a 5% rise in copper output to 330,000 tonnes from 314,000 tonnes a year before, driven by stronger results from the Los Bronces and El Soldado mines in Chile.
For 2021 as a whole, Anglo American's copper guidance has been tightened to between 650,000 tonnes and 680,000 tonnes, from the prior range of 640,000 tonnes to 680,000 tonnes.
Diamond production from the group's De Beers business grew 37% year-on-year to 15.4 million carats from 11.3 million carats, on output hikes from Botswana and South Africa, in order to meet stronger demand for rough diamonds.
Anglo American's guidance for diamond output for the year is between 32 million tonnes and 33 million tonnes, narrowed from the prior range of 32 million to 34 million tonnes.
For the group's coal operations, metallurgical coal production fell 20% year-on-year to 6.2 million tonnes, while thermal coal output also declined to 9.3 million tonnes.
The miner has kept its expectations for metallurgical coal unchanged, expected in a range of 14 to 16 million tonnes, and thermal coal between 26 to 28 million tonnes. However, with the demerger of Anglo American's thermal coal operations into Thungela Resources Ltd, the group will no longer report any output.
Total platinum group metals production for the period rose 28% year-on-year to 2.08 million ounces from 1.62 million ounces, driven by stronger performances from Mogalakwena and Amandelbult, two mines in Limpopo, South Africa.
Anglo American Platinum Ltd, a subsidiary of Anglo American, has narrowed its PGM guidance range to between 4.2 million and 4.4 million ounces from 4.2 million to 4.6 million ounces, due to concerns over loadshedding by South African utility Eskom.
For the six months ended June 30, Amplats expects headline earnings to rise sixfold to between ZAR45.5 billion and ZAR46.8 billion from ZAR6.9 billion - around GBP346.5 million - a year before.
Basic earnings meanwhile is set to be between ZAR45.5 billion and ZAR46.8 billion, also a sixfold rise from ZAR6.7 billion a year prior, driven by a higher rand basket price and a rise in sales volumes.
Amplats will post its interim results on Monday next week.
Iron ore production from Minas-Rio in Brazil declined by 9% to 11.5 million tonnes from 12.6 million tonnes a year prior, due to unplanned maintenance at the beneficiation plant.
As a result, Anglo American has narrowed guidance for Minas-Rio in 2021 to 24 million tonnes to 25 million tonnes, from 24 million tonnes to 26 million tonnes previously.
Kumba Iron Ore Ltd, a Johannesburg-listed subsidiary of Anglo American, reported a 12% rise in iron ore production to 20.4 million tonnes on rising output from the Sisken and Kolomela mines.
In addition, sales grew 3% year-on-year to 19.5 million tonnes, with a 5% rise in export sales more than offsetting a 70% plunge in domestic sales.
Financially, Kumba expects headline earnings for the interim period to be between ZAR22.76 billion and ZAR23.69 billion, more than doubled from ZAR8.40 billion a year before.
Basic earnings are set to be in the range of ZAR22.77 billion and ZAR23.70 billion, also more than doubling from a prior year.
Kumba Iron Ore will publish its interim results on Tuesday next week.
"We have generally maintained operating levels at approximately 95% of normal capacity and, as a consequence, production increased by 20% compared to Q2 of last year, with planned higher rough diamond production at De Beers, as well as strong plant performance at our Los Bronces copper operation in Chile and higher throughput at our Mogalakwena platinum group metals mine in South Africa," said Chief Executive Mark Cutifani.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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