JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Production from Glencore’s South African thermal coal mines was 10% higher in the three months to end March.

The London-, Hong Kong- and Johannesburg-listed diversified mining and marketing company, headed by CEO Ivan Glasenberg, said on Tuesday that the ramp-up of its newly commissioned Tweefontein Optimisation and Wonderfontein thermal coal projects in Mpumalanga had more than offset the closure of certain high cost operations, taking total first-quarter output to a 10%-higher 11.4-million tonnes.

The R8.213-billion Tweefontein Optimisation, which came in on time and under budget, has delivered a low-cost, long-life brownfield expansion that has elevated the operation near Ogies into a modern, predominantly opencast operation that mines the rich pillar reserves left behind in discontinued underground workings, Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online can report (also see picture).

Overall company coal production was 35.6-million tonnes, 4% higher than the comparable period due to higher South African production.

The announced potential production cuts in South Africa at Optimum Coal are expected to possibly impact later this year.

Also in South Africa, Glencore’s attributable ferrochrome production was up 15% to 385 000 t, driven by its Lion II expansion project near Steelpoort in Limpopo province.

The Lion ferrochrome smelter, owned and operated by the Glencore Merafe Chrome Venture, uses 37% less electricity than conventional ferrochrome processes and considerably less coking coal to produce the equivalent volume of ferrochrome. Had the Lion operation not installed the Premus technology, it would have needed an additional 1 776 MWh to produce the same volume of ferrochrome, Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online can report (also see picture).

Glencore oil entitlement production was up 52% to 2.6-million barrels, reflecting the ramp-up at Badila and Mangara, in Chad, and the impact of higher ownership of the Chad assets following the Caracal acquisition in July.

The 16%-higher zinc production of 356 200 t was driven by expansions at Lady Loretta and McArthur River, in Australia.

Temporary plant downtime at McArthur River and lower grades at Kazzinc in Kazakhstan, Matagami in Canada and Rosh Pinah in Namibia resulted, however, in an 8% decline on a quarterly sequential basis.

Own sourced nickel production was 7% higher at 23 800 t on an increased contribution from Koniambo in New Caledonia, where production issues resulted in sequential quarterly production being down 8%.

While overall first-quarter copper equivalent production was up 7% compared with the same period last year and was also sequentially in line with the last quarter of 2014, Glencore’s own sourced copper output was down 9% at 350 700 t, reflecting grade reductions at Alumbrera, in Argentina, and Antamina, in Peru, on mine sequencing and a planned maintenance shutdown at Collahuasi in northern Chile.

The agricultural products business unit processed and produced 15% fewer first-quarter tonnes at 1.4-million tonnes, on lower margins, prompting a reduction in crushing volumes.

The 181 000-employee Glencore, which produces and markets more than 90 commodities on 150-plus mining and metallurgical sites, oil production assets and agricultural facilities in 50 countries, supplies industrial consumers in the automotive, steel, power generation, oil and food processing sectors.

Investec Securities analysts described Glencore’s results as weaker than expected and expressed disappointment at the absence of commentary on trading performance.

As there were no guidance updates, the Investec analysts concluded that there would be no material second-quarter changes.