China demand boosts BHP iron ore production; cuts copper guidance

BHP on Wednesday said strong Chinese demand helped to boost first-quarter iron ore production, but cut 2019 copper output forecasts by 3%, due to outages at mines in Chile and Australia.

The world's biggest miner said it expected copper production to be 1.62m – 1.71m tonnes from . Its Olympic Dam mine in Australia was closed for repairs and expected to resume operations by the end of October, while a fire at the Chilean Spence mine in September left it operating at partial capacity.

Copper output was flat for the quarter at 409,000 tonnes.

Iron ore output increased to 69m from 64m tonnes a year ago. Full year guidance was held at 273m - 283m tonnes.

Nickel production fell 8% after operations at the Kalgoorlie smelter in Australia were suspended after a fire in September. The smelter is expected to return to full production in early November, BHP said.