Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani
Diversified miner Anglo American has acted with resilience in the face of the global Covid-19 pandemic, which has affected many of its operations in different countries, with some commodities being affected more significantly than others, CEO Mark Cutifani says.
"Our comprehensive response supported the continuity of the majority of our operations during varying degrees of lockdown in different jurisdictions, albeit at reduced capacity in many cases.
"Continued strong performances from our Minas-Rio iron-ore operation, in Brazil, and the Collahuasi copper operation, in Chile, helped mitigate our overall decrease in production to 18%, as we also addressed operational issues at our metallurgical coal and platinum group metal (PGM) operations.
Lockdowns imposed across Southern Africa affected Anglo’s diamond, PGMs, iron-ore and thermal coal operations during the quarter ended June 30.
PGM operations were also impacted by lower refined production as a result of repairs and ramp-up at Anglo’s converter plant in Rustenburg.
For the quarter, the most impacted commodity was Anglo’s diamond business. De Beers' production decreased by 54% year-on-year to 3.5-million carats.
PGMs production fell by 41% year-on-year.
Anglo's thermal coal production decreased by 34% year-on-year to 4.4-million tonnes in the second quarter, while metallurgical coal production fell by 32% year-on-year to four-million tonnes.
Metallurgical coal production in Australia was affected by two underground incidents at the Moranbah and Grosvenor mines, as well as longwall movements at its Grosvenor and Grasstree mines.
Meanwhile, iron-ore production by South African subsidiary Kumba Iron Ore decreased by 20% year-on-year to 8.5-million tonnes.
The Minas-Rio iron-ore mine, however, increased its output by 5% year-on-year to 5.9-million tonnes.
Anglo's manganese ore production decreased by 4% year-on-year to 796 000 t, while its nickel output increased by 10% year-on-year to 108 000 t. Copper production also increased by 5% year-on-year to 167 000 t.
The group's production guidance for diamonds in 2020 is between 25-million and 27-million carats, while copper production for the full year is expected to be between 620 000 t and 670 000 t.
Platinum output is expected to be between 1.5-million and 1.7-million ounces, while palladium output is expected to be between 1-million and 1.2-million ounces.
Kumba Iron Ore's production guidance is between 37-million and 39-million tonnes, while Minas-Rio's guidance is between 22-million and 24-million tonnes.
Metallurgical coal guidance is between 16-million and 18-million tonnes, while thermal coal production is expected to reach 21-million tonnes for the full year.
Anglo also expects to produce between 42 000 t and 44 000 t of nickel.