BHP Q2 iron ore production falls 6%; warns of $600m outage costs
Updated : 07:39
BHP on Tuesday said second quarter iron ore production fell 6% and reported a $600m hit due to production disruptions at copper and iron ore operations.
Unplanned production outages at Olympic Dam, Spence and Western Australia Iron Ore would impact productivity, BHP said, adding it would revise guidance at its results on February 19.
The 2019 copper production forecast was raised to 1.6m – 1.7m tonnes, reflecting the retention of Chile's Cerro Colorado copper mine after a sale to private equity house EMR Capital collapsed.
Iron ore production forecasts remained unchanged at 241 - 250 kilotons.
Iron ore production for the first half was up 2% to 119m tonnes. Metallurgical coal production rose 2% to 21m tonnes, while energy coal fell 5% to 13m tonnes.
Chief executive officer, Andrew Mackenzie said first half production was “broadly in line” with the prior period despite planned maintenance and outages.
“In petroleum, our first appraisal well at Trion in Mexico encountered oil and we added to our exploration options with successful bids for two licences offshore Eastern Canada.”
“We completed the sale of our US shale assets and returned $5.2bn to shareholders through a share buy-back program, with a further $5.2bn to be returned as a special dividend on 30 January 2019."