Anglo American fourth-quarter volumes down 7%

Mining giant Anglo American has said that production volumes in the fourth quarter were down 7% year-on-year as a result of a deliberate slowdown at its South African iron ore operations and weaker ore at the Los Bronces copper mine in Chile.

"Our fourth-quarter production was in line with our expectations and in line with the third quarter, despite the deliberate slowdown at Kumba to help draw down stock levels caused by poor third-party rail performance," said chief executive Duncan .

Iron ore production totalled 13.8m tonnes in the three months to 31 December, down 12% on the same period in 2022.

Production also fell across a number of other commodities in the fourth quarter: copper output declined 6% to 230,000 tonnes, platinum group metals fell 6% to 932,000 ounces, diamonds declined 3% to 7.9m carats, while manganese ore fell 14% to 848,000 tonnes.

On the upside, nickel production improved by 9% to 11,100 tonnes, while steelmaking coal output rose 2% to 4.8m tonnes.

"Looking ahead, our deliberate prioritisation of value over volume is designed to improve margins and returns. We are committed to safely delivering a consistent production performance in a streamlined and more effective organisation with significantly lower costs and capital requirements and that is more resilient through the cycle," Wanblad said.