http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business
MINING giant Rio Tinto has had an uncharacteristically subdued fourth quarter, missing copper guidance and analyst forecasts and not delivering to some expectations on iron ore.
Mined copper output slumped 23 per cent from the previous quarter to 128,300 tonnes, as the big Escondida mine in Chile, which Rio (RIO) owns in a joint venture with BHP Billiton, was hit by water restrictions.
The Rio-operated Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia was hit by a fire at the concentrator. Deutsche Bank had been expecting quarterly production of 147,600 tonnes and UBS was predicting 138,900. As a result of the weak quarter, 2014 mined copper production of 603,000 tonnes missed guidance of 615,000 tonnes.
Fourth-quarter shipments (including minor partners’ share) from Rio’s WA-dominated iron ore unit rose 13 per cent to a record 82.2 million tonnes as the company continues to expand its Pilbara region infrastructure and mines.
This brought full-year sales to 302.6 million tonnes, just beating guidance of 300 million tonnes. The quarterly effort missed UBS sales expectations of 83.9 million tonnes but beat Deutsche Bank expectations of 81 million tonnes.
Total production of 79.1 million tonnes, up 12 per cent from the previous quarter, fell shy of both UBS and Deutsche Bank expectations by about 1 million tonnes.
Fourth quarter production from the Pilbara region (including the share of minority partners) was 75.3 million tonnes, bringing total 2014 production to 280.6 million tonnes.
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