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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (36510)	5/4/2009 3:40:34 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 192966

Anglo reports falling production Allan Seccombe Posted: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 miningmx.com [miningmx.com] -- IRON ore was the only commodity within the Anglo American stable to show significant production growth in the first quarter of 2009 as diamond production fell nearly 91% and platinum, copper and coal all tracked lower. Refined platinum production at Anglo’s 78%-held Anglo Platinum fell 6% to 404,000 oz because of maintenance shutdowns at two furnaces, but stockpiled refined metal was released onto the market to prevent supply disruptions. Anglo Platinum maintained its 2009 target of 2.4 million oz of refined platinum. It has undergone a hefty restructuring to achieve this target, shedding 4,200 jobs in South Africa and trimming production at a number of mines. The 2.4 million oz target is in line with output for 2008 when Anglo Platinum experienced flooding at its Amandelbult mine, a shutdown of its Polokwane smelter and power shortages that year. The impact of those problems accounted for 268,000 oz of lost production. Diamond production at the 45%-held De Beers fell 91% year-on-year to almost 1.1 million carats as output was curtailed across the group and inventories were sold down. Second quarter diamond output will increase with the restarting of suspended mining operations in Botswana, the largest source of rough diamonds and which accounts for two-thirds of De Beers’ production. Kumba Iron Ore, which is 63.4% owned by Anglo, improved production by 22% year-on-year to 10 million tonnes in the quarter. However, all is not sunshine and roses within Kumba given the weak state of global steel markets in the global economic downswing. Stockpiles at the Sishen mine and the Saldanha and Qingdao ports in South Africa and China respectively of finished material have swollen by 1.7 million tonnes to 7.5 million tonnes because of reduced domestic off take and reduced exports. Kumba can build its stockpiles to about 13 million tonnes before it has to consider cutting production, financial director Vince Uren told Miningmx in February. Kumba repeated a warning that production cuts could be made if Japanese and European demand continues falling, domestic demand decreases further and China’s capacity to absorb extra iron ore reaches saturation. Kumba’s management has targeted China for increased iron ore offtake to compensate for reduced demand in other markets and their efforts have resulted in a 45% increase in sales to that market year-on-year in the March quarter. Manganese ore and alloy output fell by half because of the weak steel markets. Copper, nickel and zinc production also declined on the back of lower grades, energy cuts, plant problems and maintenance shutdowns.