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Q2 2020 Production Report

16 July, 2020

Anglo American plc Production Report for the second quarter ended 30 June 2020

Mark Cutifani, Chief Executive of Anglo American, said: “Anglo American has shown resilience in addressing the challenges posed by Covid-19, acting quickly to help safeguard the lives and livelihoods of our workforce and host communities. Our comprehensive response supported the continuity of the majority of our operations during varying degrees of lockdown in different jurisdictions, albeit at reduced capacity in many cases. 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%(1), as we also addressed operational issues at our metallurgical coal and PGM operations. Building up from a production level of around 60%(1) of total capacity in April, we continue to increase and had reached about 90%(1) of production capacity by the end of June.

"Beyond the current business imperatives, we continue to ensure that our business is well positioned for the long term, including the nature of our portfolio evolution and societal responsibilities. During the quarter, we have confirmed our plans to work towards an exit from our remaining thermal coal operations in South Africa, in line with our overall trajectory towards later cycle products. And, benefiting from the ongoing transformation of our physical processes through our FutureSmart Mining programme, we set out our clear aim of achieving carbon neutrality across our operations by 2040 – an ambitious and important commitment for us as a business, for our employees and our diverse stakeholders."

Q2 Highlights

  • Minas-Rio in Brazil continued its strong operational performance, with 6.2 million tonnes of high quality iron ore production, reflecting ongoing P101 productivity improvements.
  • Collahuasi in Chile increased copper production by 38% due to strong performance.
  • Metallurgical coal production decreased by 32% to 4.0 million tonnes due to two incidents underground, at Moranbah and Grosvenor, as well as longwall moves at Grosvenor and Grasstree.
  • Covid-19 lockdowns across southern Africa affected De Beers, PGMs, Kumba and Thermal Coal, with lower refined PGMs production due to the repairs and ramp-up of the ACP.

Production Summary

  Q2 2020 Q2 2019 % vs. Q2 2019 H1 2020 H1 2019 % vs. H1 2019
Diamonds (Mct)(2) 3.5 7.7 (54)% 11.3 15.6 (27)%
Copper (kt)(3) 167 159 5% 314 320 (2)%
Platinum (koz)(4) 307 520 (41)% 748 992 (25)%
Palladium (koz)(4) 228 347 (34)% 532 674 (21)%
Iron ore – Kumba (Mt) 8.5 10.5 (20)% 17.9 20.1 (11)%
Iron ore – Minas-Rio (Mt)(5) 6.2 5.9 5% 12.6 10.8 17%
Metallurgical coal (Mt) 4.0 5.8 (32)% 7.8 10.0 (22)%
Thermal coal (Mt)(6) 4.4 6.6 (34)% 10.5 13.2 (20)%
Nickel (Kt)(7) 10.8 9.8 10% 21.7 19.6 11%
Manganese ore (kt) 796 826 (4)% 1,639 1,700 (4)%

This Production Report for the second quarter ended 30 June 2020 is unaudited.

(1) Copper equivalent production is normalised to reflect closure of Victor (De Beers) and Sibanye-Stillwater Rustenburg material that has transitioned to a tolling arrangement (Platinum Group Metals).
(2) De Beers production is on a 100% basis, except for the Gahcho Kué joint venture which is on an attributable 51% basis.
(3) Contained metal basis. Reflects copper production from the Copper business unit only (excludes copper production from the Platinum Group Metals business unit).
(4) Produced ounces of metal in concentrate. Reflects own mine production and purchases.
(5) Volumes are reported as wet metric tonnes. Product is shipped with ~8-9% moisture.
(6) Reflects export production from South Africa and attributable export production (33.3%) from Colombia.
(7) Reflects nickel production from the Nickel business unit only (excludes nickel production from the Platinum Group Metals business unit).

View full PDF of this press release (PDF, 416KB, opens in a new window)

View Anglo American Q2 Production Tables (XLS, 726KB, opens in a new window)

For further information, please contact:

Media Investors
UK UK
James Wyatt-Tilby Paul Galloway
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)20 7968 8759
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)20 7968 8718
Marcelo Esquivel Robert Greenberg
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)20 7968 8891
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)20 7968 2124
Katie Ryall Emma Waterworth
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)20 7968 8935
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)20 7968 8574
South Africa
Pranill Ramchander
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +27 (0)11 638 2592
Sibusiso Tshabalala  
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +27 (0)11 638 2175
 

Notes to editors:

Anglo American is a leading global mining company and our products are the essential ingredients in almost every aspect of modern life. Our portfolio of world-class competitive operations, development projects and undeveloped resources, provides many of the metals and minerals that enable a cleaner, greener, more sustainable world and that meet the fast growing consumer-driven demands of developed and maturing economies. With our people at the heart of our business, we use innovative practices and the latest technologies to mine, process, move and market our products to our customers – and to discover new resources – safely and sustainably.

As a responsible producer of diamonds (through De Beers), copper, platinum group metals, the steelmaking ingredients of iron ore and metallurgical coal, and nickel – with crop nutrients in development and thermal coal operations planned for divestment - we are committed to being carbon neutral across our operations by 2040. We work together with our business partners and diverse stakeholders to unlock sustainable value from precious natural resources for the benefit of the communities and countries in which we operate, for society as a whole, and for our shareholders. Anglo American is re-imagining mining to improve people’s lives.

Forward-looking statements and third-party information:

This announcement includes forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this announcement, including, without limitation, those regarding Anglo American’s financial position, business, acquisition and divestment strategy, dividend policy, plans and objectives of management for future operations (including development plans and objectives relating to Anglo American’s products, production forecasts and Ore Reserves and Mineral Resource estimates), are forward-looking statements. By their nature, such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Anglo American, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding Anglo American’s present and future business strategies and the environment in which Anglo American will operate in the future. Important factors that could cause Anglo American’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, among others, levels of actual production during any period, levels of global demand and commodity market prices, mineral resource exploration and development capabilities, recovery rates and other operational capabilities, the effects of global pandemics and outbreaks of infectious diseases, the availability of mining and processing equipment, the ability to produce and transport products profitably, the availability of transportation infrastructure, the impact of foreign currency exchange rates on market prices and operating costs, the availability of sufficient credit, the effects of inflation, political uncertainty and economic conditions in relevant areas of the world, the actions of competitors, activities by governmental authorities such as permitting and changes in taxation or safety, health, environmental or other types of regulation in the countries where Anglo American operates, conflicts over land and resource ownership rights and such other risk factors identified in Anglo American’s most recent Annual Report. Forward-looking statements should, therefore, be construed in light of such risk factors and undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this announcement. Anglo American expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking (except as required by applicable law, the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, the UK Listing Rules, the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority, the Listings Requirements of the securities exchange of the JSE Limited in South Africa, the SIX Swiss Exchange, the Botswana Stock Exchange and the Namibian Stock Exchange and any other applicable regulations) to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in Anglo American’s expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Nothing in this announcement should be interpreted to mean that future earnings per share of Anglo American will necessarily match or exceed its historical published earnings per share.

Certain statistical and other information about Anglo American included in this announcement is sourced from publicly available third-party sources. As such, it has not been independently verified and presents the views of those third parties, though these may not necessarily correspond to the views held by Anglo American and Anglo American expressly disclaims any responsibility for, or liability in respect of, such third-party information.

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