Rio Tinto delivers record first quarter for iron ore output

15th Apr 2014 07:03

Mining group Rio Tinto said it started the new financial year strongly with record first-quarter iron ore production and shipments, though production eased when compared with the end of last year.Iron ore production reached 66.4m tonnes (Mt) in the first three months of the year, a record for the first quarter and up 8% on the previous year. However, output was down 6% when compared with the fourth quarter of 2013.Shipments rose at a year-on-year (y/y) rate of 16% to 66.7Mt, but were down 8% quarter-on-quarter (q/q).Shipments exceeded production during the quarter, despite the impact of tropical cyclone Christine, which closed Rio's ports for three days at the end of 2013 and affected the progressive recovery of rail and ports into January, the company said.Chief Executive Sam Walsh remarked: "Rio Tinto has started the year with a series of performance records as we continue to drive productivity gains across our operations."Our Pilbara iron ore business has again set new benchmarks for production, shipments and rail volumes for the first quarter and we are well on track to reach nameplate capacity of 290Mt per annum by the end of the first half of 2014."At the company's other operations, similar trends in production rates - year-on-year growth and quarter-on-quarter declines - were registered in copper, bauxite, and hard coking coal.Exploration and evaluation expenditure was $155m during the first quarter.BC