Anglo American ramps up 2Q iron ore, coking coal output

UK-South African mining firm Anglo American increased coking coal production in the second quarter after completing longwall moves. Its global iron ore output continued to rise following a restart at the Minas-Rio mine in Brazil.

Anglo produced 5.8mn t of metallurgical coal for export from Australia in April-June, up by 41pc from the first quarter and by 11pc from a year earlier. This comprised 4.96mn t of hard coking coal and 884,900t of pulverized coal injection and semi-soft coking coal.

Anglo completed longwall moves at its Moranbah and Grasstree mines in Queensland in the first quarter. The extended 15-week longwall move at Moranbah is intended to shorten another move later this year.

The company kept its full-year met coal production guidance unchanged at 22mn-24mn t.

Anglo's global iron ore production rose by 7.1pc from a year earlier to 16.4mn in the second quarter. This comprised 10.5mn t from its Kumba division in South Africa and 5.9mn t from its Minas-Rio mine.

Production at Minas-Rio was suspended for most of last year because of a slurry pipeline leak, but the company was able to undertake optimisation work in the meantime. The mine is one of the world's largest sources of high-grade iron ore concentrate.

But output from Kumba fell from 11.6mn t in April-June last year because of unscheduled plant maintenance at its Sishen and Kolomela sites and poor weather conditions, the company said.

Anglo revised its full-year iron ore production guidance for Kumba lower to 42mn-43mn t from 43mn-44mn t previously. Production guidance for Minas-Rio has been increased to 19mn-21mn t from 18mn-20mn t after the mine's strong performance in the first half of the year.