Johannesburg - Anglo American, a mining company with operations from Australia to Chile, said third-quarter iron-ore production jumped 37 percent from a year earlier, while copper and platinum output fell.
Iron-ore production was 13 million metric tons in the three months ended September 30, the London-based company said in a statement today.
Copper decreased 15 percent to 176,900 tons.
Platinum equivalent refined production was 14 percent lower at 533,000 ounces, it said.
The increase in output at Anglo’s Kumba Iron Ore unit follows “the implementation of the production recovery plan at Sishen and record output at Kolomela,” the company said in its statement.
Chief executive Mark Cutifani, who began a review of operations after joining Anglo in April last year, plans to increase the company’s return on capital to at least 15 percent by 2016.
Kumba implemented a turnaround plan after falling grades at its Sishen mine in South Africa, the continent’s largest for the steelmaking ingredient, as the platinum-unit returned to normal production after a five-month strike that ended in June.
Production of export metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking, increased 4 percent to 5.1 million tons.
Output of export thermal coal declined 4 percent to 9 million tons.
The company also mines diamonds in southern Africa and Canada.
Production at De Beers, the gem producer 85 percent owned by Anglo, rose 6 percent in the third quarter to 8.2 million carats.
Anglo forecasts full-year iron-ore output of 45 million tons to 46 million tons, from 44 million tons to 46 million tons previously.
Metallurgical-coal production may reach as many as 21 million tons from a prior prediction of about 20 million tons, it said.
The company sees copper output of as many as 745,000 tons compared with a previous forecast of 740,000 tons.
Anglo cut its full-year refined platinum-production forecast to a range of 1.75 million ounces to 1.8 million ounces and left its sales estimate at 2 million to 2.1 million ounces. - Bloomberg News