Rio Tinto sees recovery, cautious on 2010

14th Jan 2010 07:02

Mining giant Rio Tinto hailed ‘another very strong quarter for iron ore production, driven by continuing high demand from China’ as it published its fourth quarter operations review.The company’s global iron ore production was 49% higher in the fourth quarter of 2009 than in the final quarter of 2008.Global iron ore sales hit a new quarterly record at 61m tonnes.Mined copper production rose 36% year on year, with all sites, but most notably Escondida and Grasberg, boosting output.Refined copper production rose 15% year on year.Mined gold production topped 1.1m tonnes in 2009, an improvement of 141% on 2008. Thermal coal production in the fourth quarter was up 5% on a year earlier but Australian hard coking coal output was down 2%.The situation was less buoyant at the aluminium operations, where production cutbacks were maintained in response to market conditions. At the end of 2009 Rio Tinto Alcan's annual run rate was nine per cent lower than at the start of the year.Uranium output was also down, dipping 20% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier as a result of lower grades.‘We are seeing recovery across most of our key commodities, although we continue to be cautious on the state of the global economy going into 2010 as stimulus packages start to wind down,’ chief executive Tom Albanese said.