Anglo American cuts copper guidance for 2023

Multi-metal mining giant Anglo American has cut copper production guidance for the full year, but said it remains on track to his all other output targets.

Copper production guidance for 2023 has been revised to 830,000-870,000 tonnes, down from earlier forecasts of 840,000-930,000 tonnes.

The company said the revision was a result of poor ore characteristics and an electrical substation fire at its Los Bronces project in Chile, as well as the impact of a geotechnical fault line on El Soldado's production.

Nevertheless, copper was only two of Anglo's seven product lines to see increases in production over the third quarter.

Copper output jumped 42% year-on-year to 209,000 tonnes, helped by higher production from Quellaveco in Peru, offsetting Chile operations which decreased by 4%.

Anglo, the world's largest producer of platinum, said platinum group metals (PGM) production fell 2% year-on-year to 1.03m ounces.

Meanwhile, the output of diamonds, iron ore and steelmaking coal also declined, by 23%. 4% and 21%, respectively.

Commenting on the results, chief executive Duncan Wamblad said: "Copper production from Chile decreased due to ongoing ore hardness and an electrical substation fire at Los Bronces, resulting in a minor revision to guidance for our Chile operations. We are on track to deliver our full year guidance across all other products."