Anglo Pacific's shares fall as it warns on Kestrel royalty

Shares in Anglo Pacific Group were down almost 7% as the company warned the royalty from its Kestrel underground mine in Australia will be lower than expected.

Anglo owns a slice in certain of the Kestrel project's land areas. The project is operated by mining titan Rio Tinto, which means the company only receives royalties when mining is being undertaken on those specific areas.

It said Rio Tinto had indicated mining within the group's private royalty lands in first-half 2016 would be about 20-25%, from a previously guided range of 30-35%.

At 12:36 BST, Anglo's shares were down 6.44% to 83.5p each.

London- and Toronto-quoted Anglo said it understood this was due to the delayed commencement of mining of longwall panel 404, which was largely within the group's private royalty area.

Mining of the longwall panel 404 was now seen beginning at the start of second-half 2016.

"We expect mining within the group's private-royalty land will be approximately 85-90% in second-half 2016 resulting in significantly higher volumes than first-half 2016," the company said.

Anglo continued to expect that total mining within its private-royalty land in 2016 would be approximately 60-65%, as previously guided.