LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Anglo American Plc (AAUKY.PK, AAL.L) reported Thursday that its first-quarter copper production increased 9 percent to 160 thousand tonnes from last year's 147 thousand tonnes, due to strong performances at both Los Bronces and Collahuasi.
Platinum Group Metals or PGMs production increased by 7 percent, with Mogalakwena production increasing by 17 percent due to higher throughput and grade. Iron ore production at Kumba also increased 10 percent driven by higher plant availability.
Manganese ore production increased 7 percent.
Meanwhile, production of diamonds dropped 7 percent to 7.2 million carats, driven by operational challenges, including excessive rainfall in southern Africa and a Covid-19-related shutdown in Canada.
Metallurgical coal was down 14 percent, Thermal coal was down 20 percent and production of Nickel fell 7 percent.
Exploration and evaluation expenditure decreased 3 percent to $59 million. Exploration expenditure decreased 24 percent.
Looking ahead for fiscal 2021, the company continues to project copper production of 640 to 680 thousand tonnes, PGMs of 4.2 to 4.6 million ounces and iron ore of 64.5 million tonnes to 67.5 million tonnes.
Diamond production guidance is unchanged at 32-34 million carats.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX