Dineo Faku
DIVERSIFIED global mining company Anglo American posted solid production figures in the quarter to September.
Anglo raised its full-year iron-ore production forecast to a range of 45 million tons to 46 million tons from 44 million tons to 46 million tons, after third-quarter output jumped 37 percent from a year earlier, the London-based company said in a statement yesterday.
Anglo American’s chief executive, Mark Cutifani, who began a review of operations after joining Anglo in April last year, plans to sell assets that fail to meet his goal of increasing the company’s return on capital to at least 15 percent by 2016. That includes the sale of four labour-intensive platinum mines in South Africa after a five-month strike that ended in June.
Rubin Renecke, an investment analyst at Kagiso Asset Management, said the production results continued to highlight that the operational improvements implemented under Mark Cutifani were progressing well.”
Anglo subsidiary Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the world’s biggest platinum producer, stepped up the sale of its loss-making Union Platinum Mine and concentrator in the North West, it said yesterday following the restructuring of its operations that included the consolidation of loss making shafts.
“Preparations for the sale of Union mine and concentrator have been finalised and the sale process has commenced,” Amplats said in its quarterly operational update yesterday.
The company has yet to name the potential buyers of the assets. Unions have previously said the sale would lead to job losses.
Abdul Davids, the head of Research at Kagiso Asset Management, said Amplats had always stated that it would look to exit Union before year-end and this was on track.
Although Amplats’ Rustenburg, Union and Amandelbult mines returned to normal production in the quarter, output dropped by 34 percent to 192 000 ounces. Union and Rustenburg produced 92 000 ounces below the company’s expectations due to the strike.
Amplats said: “The ramp-up was successfully completed within two months, a month ahead of schedule, and production at these mines in August and September exceeded the prior year’s production performance after taking into account the impact of the consolidation of loss making shafts”.
Production at Kumba Iron Ore rose by 37 percent to 13 million tons following the production recovery plan at the Sishen mine in the Northern Cape and record output at Kolomela. Waste removal at Sishen continued to be the operational focus.
Kumba said that export metallurgical coal production increased by 4 percent to 5.1 million tons.
Nickel production increased by 13 percent to 10 700 tons driven by continued improved operational stability at Barro Alto prior to the planned rebuild of the two furnaces.
De Beers’s diamond production rose by 6 percent to 8.2 million carats. The rise was primarily due to a strong performance at Jwaneng in Botswana. De Beers’ planned plant upgrade at Venetia near Musina in Limpopo while a 19-day strike at Namdeb Land in Namibia negatively effected output.
Anglo’s shares eased 1.3 percent to R235.7. Amplats gained 0 14 percent to R364.02. – Additional reporting by Bloomberg