BHP second-quarter iron ore output down 9 percent, flags $600 million negative impact (Reuters U.S. – January 21, 2019)

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MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Global miner BHP Group said on Tuesday its second-quarter iron ore production fell 9 percent and flagged a $600 million negative impact due to production disruptions at its copper and iron ore operations.

The world’s biggest miner said unplanned production outages at Olympic Dam, Spence and Western Australia Iron Ore are likely to negatively impact productivity and flagged that it would revise guidance at its results on Feb 19.

The miner also raised its 2019 copper production forecast to between about 1.6 million tonne and 1.7 million tonne bolstered by the retention of Cerro Colorado copper mine in Chile, after a sale to private equity house EMR Capital fell through.

“Yes, iron ore output might have been a little softer but overall I’d say production was broadly in line,” said a fund manager in Melbourne who declined to be named.

“I’d think about the $600 million as more of an opportunity cost that we knew about from earlier in the quarter.”

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