(RTTNews) - Anglo American plc (AAUKY.PK, AAL.L) reported Thursday that its second-quarter rough diamond production decreased 54 percent to 3.5 million carats from last year's 7.7 million carrats, primarily due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.
The company noted that 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.
Copper production, however, grew 5 percent to 166,800 tonnes due to continued strong plant performance at Collahuasi.
In the Platinum Group Metals or PGMs, platinum production decreased 41 percent to 307,400 ounces and palladium production fell 34 percent to 228,400 ounces.
In Kumba, total iron ore production volumes decreased 20 percent to 8.5 million tonnes. In Minas-Rio, iron ore production increased 5 percent to 6.2 million tonnes.
Metallurgical coal production decreased 32 percent to 4.0 million tonnes due to two incidents underground, at Moranbah and Grosvenor, as well as longwall moves at Grosvenor and Grasstree.
Looking ahead for fiscal 2020, De Deers production guidance is unchanged at 25-27 million carats on a 100 percent basis. Copper production guidance for the year remains unchanged at 620,000-670,000 tonnes, subject to water availability and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Further, PGMs production guidance, metal in concentrate, is unchanged at 1.5-1.7 million ounces of platinum and 1.0-1.2 million ounces of palladium.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
