logo-loader

Anglo American goes from 60% to 90% of production capacity during second quarter

Published: 03:30 16 Jul 2020 EDT

Anglo American PLC -

Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL) reported lower production of iron ore, platinum, coal and diamonds in the second quarter due to reduced capacity because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The group was at a production level of around 60% of total capacity in April and, amid varying degrees of lockdown in different jurisdictions, by the end of June this had reached about 90% of production capacity.

READ: Anglo American shows potential for hydrogen fuel in mining sector as EU publishes strategy roadmap

“Continued strong performances from our Minas-Rio iron ore operation in Brazil and the Collahuasi copper operation in Chile helped mitigate our overall decrease in production to 18%,” said chief executive Mark Cutifani.

He said the FTSE 100 mining giant acted quickly with a “comprehensive response” to support the continuity of the majority of operations. 

Attempting to balance business imperatives and societal responsibilities, Cutifani said plans have been set out on how to work towards an exit from the group’s remaining thermal coal operations in South Africa, while how it will attempt to achieve carbon neutrality across the group by 2040.

Production of iron ore from the Kumba project fell 20% quarter on quarter, platinum was down 41%, palladium down 34%, diamonds down 54%, metallurgical coal and thermal coal down 32% and 34%, while manganese was down 4%. 

Copper production rose 5% quarter on quarter, while iron ore from Minas-Rio was also up 5%, with nickel production the only other increase, up 10%.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

5 hours, 38 minutes ago