A fire at a mine high in the Chilean Andes led Anglo American to trim its guidance for copper production this year.
The FTSE 100 mining group said that it now expected to produce between 830,000 and 870,000 tonnes of copper this year, down from previous estimates of between 840,000 and 930,000 tonnes.
The downgrade was triggered by weak third-quarter output at its Los Bronces mine, about 40 miles northeast of Santiago, at an altitude of almost 4,000 metres. Production from the site fell by a fifth to 45,800 tonnes “due to a combination of continued higher ore hardness and a substation fire that interrupted plant facilities’ power supply for 16 days”. This meant it processed less ore than normal, and the ore it did process was lower grade.
Despite this, total copper output rose by 42 per cent in the quarter thanks to increased production at Anglo’s new Quellaveco mine in Peru. Copper demand is likely to increase, as it is a key component in solar panels and electric cars.
Duncan Wanblad, Anglo chief executive, said it remained “on track to deliver our full-year guidance across all other products”, which include nickel, diamonds, coking coal, iron ore and platinum.
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In the third quarter, iron ore production fell by 4 per cent owing to maintenance at Minas-Rio in Brazil, while diamond production fell by 23 per cent as Anglo’s De Beers subsidiary moves to underground mining at the huge Venetia mine in South Africa.
Coking coal output was down 21 per cent, reflecting “challenging strata conditions at Moranbah” in Australia. Tyler Broda, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said consensus for full-year output was already down at 844,000 tonnes and likely to see limited change as a result of the update. Anglo’s other operations “continue to improve at the margin”.
The shares closed up 37½p, or 1.8 per cent, at £20.69.
