News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 25 Oct 2024

Anglo American continues copper reshaping, reiterates production guidance

Anglo American said Thursday the reshaping of its copper operations continues to progress with the older of the two Los Bronces plants placed on care and maintenance.

The smaller and more costly Los Bronces plant corresponds to around 40% of the total plant capacity. Its planned closure, which was announced at the end of July, resulted in a decline of 20% in production at the Los Bronces plant to 36,600 t.

“The ongoing characteristics of lower grade and ore hardness as a result of the current mine phase will continue to impact operations until the next phase of the mine, where grades are expected to be higher and the ore softer,” Anglo explains. “As previously disclosed, development work for this phase is underway and is expected to benefit production from early 2027.”

Anglo saw its Q3 copper production decline 13% to 181,300 t, but it reiterates it’s on track to meet full-year guidance of 730,000-790,000 t. Production at the Quellaveco mine in Peru is expected to increase in the fourth quarter as grades and recovery improve. The overall unit cost guidance remains unchanged at $1.57/lb.

Realised copper prices in Q3 increased 9% y-o-y to $4.21/lb, with prices growing more in Chile than in Peru, Kallanish learns.

“We are making excellent progress with our portfolio simplification to create an exciting and differentiated investment proposition focused on our world-class copper, premium iron ore and crop nutrients assets - all future-enabling products,” comments ceo Duncan Wanblad.

“This highly cash generative and much higher margin portfolio will offer greater resilience through cycles with the benefit of significant high quality and well sequenced growth options, including a clear path to increase annual copper production to more than 1 million tonnes by the early 2030s,” he continues.

The miner also notes a “strong operational performance” at its nickel business, enabled a full-year production guidance hike at lower unit costs. Anglo expects to produce 38,000-39,000 t of nickel this year, compared to a previous target of 36,000-38,000 t. Unit cost fell from $5.50/lb to $5.30/lb.

In Q3, nickel production rose 6% to 9,900 t, despite a 16% drop in realised price to $6.93/lb. Manganese production in the quarter collapsed by 60% to 406,000 t mainly due to the ongoing temporary suspension of Australian operations due to a tropical cyclone in March. Phased mining activities started in June, but major works continue.

Source:Kallanish