Anglo American, the owners of Unki Mine on Thursday kept its guidance on full-year production unchanged despite reporting a fall in first-quarter copper equivalent production, driven by slump in metallurgical coal production.
The miner said production guidance is unchanged at 31-33 million carats, subject to trading conditions.
The Unki mine is an underground mine located in the center part of Zimbabwe in Gweru, Midlands Province. Unki represents one of the largest platinum reserves in Zimbabwe having estimated reserves of 34 million oz of platinum. The mine produces around 64,000 oz of platinum/year.
In three months through March, copper equivalent production fell 6 percent, with two planned longwall moves at metallurgical coal accounting for 80 percent of the reduction, the company said.
Metallurgical coal production decreased by 25 percent to 4.2m tonnes, but guidance for the year full remained unchanged at 22-24m tonnes.
De Beers' diamond production decreased by 8 percent to 7.9m carats driven by lower production at Venetia as it transitions from open pit to underground. But production guidance for the full year was unchanged at 31-33m carats.
Platinum and palladium production decreased by 5 percent to 471,900 ounces and by 6 percent) to 326,600 ounces, respectively, due to operational challenges as well as one-off benefits in Q1 2018.
Thermal coal export production decreased by 2 percent to 6.6m tonnes, and Kumba's iron ore production decreased by 12 percent to 9.5m tonnes due to plant maintenance, the company said.
But there were some bright spots with copper production up 4 percent to 161,100 tonnes due to 'strong plant performance and planned higher grades,' the company added.
Copper production guidance was also unchanged at 630,000-660,000 tonnes.
In a press release CE Mark Cutifan said production is 6 percent lower in the quarter, with two planned longwall moves at Metallurgical Coal accounting for 80 percent of the reduction.
“Isolated production issues at Venetia (De Beers), Kumba Iron Ore and Platinum Group Metals made up the balance, mitigated by stronger operational performance from Copper, with a 4 percent production increase, and the ramp-up at Minas-Rio, which is ahead of plan following the restart of operations in December 2018.;
“By the end of the quarter we had increased our production run-rate, are on track to deliver this year's production targets and our guidance is unchanged.”
Anglo American is a multinational mining company based in Johannesburg, South Africa and London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest producer of platinum, with around 40 percent of world output, as well as being a major producer of diamonds, copper, nickel, iron ore and metallurgical and thermal coal.
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