Rio Tinto cuts full-year copper guidance

Rio Tinto cut its copper guidance for the year on Tuesday as it reported a drop in mined copper in the third quarter.

The company revised its mined copper guidance to between 460,000 and 480,000 tonnes from 500,000 to 550,000 tonnes, citing the impact of the delayed ramp-up of the Escondida expansion, and fourth quarter mine sequencing changes at Rio Tinto Kennecott. Refined copper production guidance was unchanged at 185,000 to 225,000 tonnes, subject to the impact of the investigation at the Kennecott smelter.

Rio said mined copper production was down 3% compared to the third quarter of 2016 due to lower copper head grades at Kennecott and Oyu Tolgoi.

Meanwhile, Bauxite production of 12.9m tonnes was up 4% on the year following strong quarterly production performances at both Gove and Weipa.

Production of iron ore from the company’s mines in Australia's western Pilbara region was 2% higher on the year at 85m tonnes, and 6% higher than in the previous quarter.

Chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said: "The business performed very well in the September quarter, with a strong quarterly production performance and a wave of productivity improvements embedded through our operations.

“We continue to shape our asset portfolio and announced $2.5bn of additional returns to shareholders from the proceeds of the Coal & Allied sale, demonstrating the robustness of our strategy and ability to invest in high-value growth whilst returning excess cash to shareholders. We have announced over $8bn of cash returns in 2017. Our relentless focus on cash generation and disciplined capital allocation will continue to deliver superior returns for our shareholders."