Anglo American’s first-quarter copper output rises 28%

LONDON (Reuters) -Anglo American’s overall first-quarter production rose 9% from a year earlier, helped by a 28% jump in copper output from the ramp-up of its Quellaveco mine in Peru and improvement in its steelmaking coal operations, it said on Tuesday.

The London-listed miner said it produced 178,000 tonnes of copper in the quarter to March, and reported a 59% jump in steelmaking coal output to 3.5 million tonnes.

Copper production, however, came below analysts’ expectations and was down from the previous quarter, due to lower grades at Chilean mines Los Bronces and Collahuasi. The company left its full-year production and unit cost guidance unchanged.

With mixed results and no change to production and cost guidance, we do not expect meaningful changes to consensus earnings estimates for 2023,” Citi analysts said in a note.

Anglo’s share price was down 2% by 0742 GMT, in line with its peers.

Rough diamond production via its global giant De Beers remained flat at 8.9 million carats over the period, partly due to the transition of its Venetia mine in South Africa from open pit to a new underground section.

De Beers jointly owns Africa’s largest diamond producer Debswana with Botswana, although the country is exploring other options outside their 54 year-old partnership.

The two partners are currently in talks to renew a 2011 sales and marketing agreement which entitles De Beers to 75% of the production from Debswana.

(Reporting by Clara Denina and Muhammed Husain; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil, Kirsten Donovan and Bernadette Baum)