Rio Tinto delivers record iron ore output in first half

16th Jul 2013 07:08

Diversified mining group Rio Tinto was able to work through a equipment issues and unseasonal wet weather in Australia to deliver record iron ore production in the first half. Output across most other commodity classes also increased year-on-year, though falls were reported in hard coking coal production. The firm said it was on track to hit its targeted reduction in exploration and evaluation spend by $750m this year, with spending down $483m in the first six months.Iron ore production amounted to 118.6m tonnes in the first half of 2013, up 4.0% year-on-year in spite of one of five ship loaders being sidelined for nearly three weeks owing to a conveyor belt breakage, as well as flooding in the Pilbara region.Chief Executive Sam Walsh said: "Our iron ore operations continue their impressive performance, with period-on-period productivity improvements. One of our key priorities this year is to deliver our growth projects. Despite some challenging weather conditions, our Pilbara 290 iron ore expansion remains on track to deliver first tonnes by the end of this quarter."Mined copper was up 17% in the first half at 296,400 tonnes, helped by a sustained recovery in grades at Kennecott Utah Copper and Chile's Escondida since last year.Rio is attempting to recover production after a slide at its Bingham Canyon copper mine at Kennecott. While the access ramp for heavy equipment remains unusable, the recovery is "advancing better than previously expected", the company said, meaning that the negative impact on full-year output will be less than initially estimated.Hard coking coal output was down 4.0% year-on-year at 3.55m tonnes as a result of a planned shutdown of the firm's Kestrel Mine coal handling preparation plant (Queensland) for upgrades works. Semi-soft coking coal and thermal coal volumes however improved substantially on last year.Titanium dioxide feedstock volumes were up 19% in the first half due to the doubling of its interest in Richards Bay Minerals. Aluminium production rose 7.0%.The stock was up 2.05% at 2,864p in early trading on Tuesday.