Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani
Photo by: Creamer Media
Global mining group Anglo American has refined its copper production forecast for its mines in Chile, affirming a 660 000 t/y forecast for 2018 and announcing new targets for the following three years.
The company raised the bottom range of its 2019 guidance to 630 000 t, from 600 000 t, while keeping the top-end at 660 000 t.
For 2020, the forecast increased to between 620 000 t and 680 000 t, from 600 000 t to 660 000 t previously and a new guidance of 590 000 t to 650 000 t has been set for 2021.
At the same time, Anglo American also announced a lower unit cost guidance of 140c/lb for 2018, compared with 145c/lb previously, and 135c/lb to 140c/lb for 2019.
Anglo American owns the Los Bronces and Collahuasi mines, in Chile, and earlier this year also started construction of the $5-billion Quellaveco mine, in Peru. The Quellaveco mine, in which Mitsubishi has a stake, is forecast to start production in 2022, producing 300 000 t/y of copper equivalent at a cash cost of $1.05/lb of copper.
The group, which is hosting an analyst and investor visit to its South American operations this week, stated on Tuesday that it would aim to produce one-million tonnes a year of copper in the medium term and said that it was confident that it could meet that target through expansions at Quellaveco and other organic growth opportunities.
In a news release, Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani said that he expected the supply of copper to become constrained in the years ahead, citing the key role that the metal played in the renewable energy and electric vehicle markets.