Anglo American digs up solid update

Anglo American has delivered a solid production report for its third quarter, with increases across five of the seven commodities it mines.

For the period ending September 30th it also made some important corporate moves. These included the acquisition of a 40% shareholding in De Beers for $5.2bn cash, and the sale of a 25.4% share in Anglo American Sur for $2bn in cash.

In addition, it issued corporate bonds worth $2.3bn in US and European markets.

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Exploration and evaluation operating expenditure for the nine months ended September 30th was $526m, 47% higher than the same period of 2011.

Production figures

Among the production figure highlights for the quarter were:

Iron ore - Kumba iron ore production increased by 14% to a record 12.5m tonnes (Mt), driven by faster than planned ramp up of the Kolomela mine. Kolomela is expected to produce at least 7m tonnes in 2012.

Metallurgical coal - production of metallurgical coal increased by 12% to 4.5Mt.

Thermal coal - export thermal coal production in South Africa increased by 10% to 4.6 Mt due to the ramp-up of Zibulo and the industrial action that affected operations in Q3 2011.

Copper - copper production increased by 12% to 157,300 tonnes, reflecting a full ramp up of the Los Bronces expansion project.

Nickel - nickel production increased by 38% to 9,000 tonnes, with production from Barro Alto offsetting the lack of production from Loma de Nquel in Venezuela.

Platinum - refined platinum production of 649,000 ounces was flat, while equivalent refined platinum production decreased by 6% to 626,300 ounces. Production and costs were adversely impacted by illegal industrial action which caused production loss of 42,000 ounces of equivalent refined platinum in the quarter.

Diamonds - diamond production decreased by 31% to 6.4m carats, largely in response to market conditions and the Jwaneng slope failure.

Results for the full year to December 31st will be announced on February 15th 2013.

CM