Anglo American cuts copper guidance for 2023

Copper production guidance for 2023 has been revised to 830,000-870,000 tonnes, down from earlier forecasts of 840,000-930,000 tonnes.

The company said the revision was a result of poor ore characteristics and an electrical substation fire at its Los Bronces project in Chile, as well as the impact of a geotechnical fault line on El Soldado's production.

Nevertheless, copper was only two of Anglo's seven product lines to see increases in production over the third quarter.

Copper output jumped 42% year-on-year to 209,000 tonnes, helped by higher production from Quellaveco in Peru, offsetting Chile operations which decreased by 4%.

Anglo, the world's largest producer of platinum, said platinum group metals (PGM) production fell 2% year-on-year to 1.03m ounces.

Meanwhile, the output of diamonds, iron ore and steelmaking coal also declined, by 23%. 4% and 21%, respectively.

Commenting on the results, chief executive Duncan Wamblad said: "Copper production from Chile decreased due to ongoing ore hardness and an electrical substation fire at Los Bronces, resulting in a minor revision to guidance for our Chile operations. We are on track to deliver our full year guidance across all other products."