Anglo American raised its estimates for production between 2018 and 2021, driven by better performance of its copper, diamond and platinum businesses, at the same time that it reduced its costs forecast.
“We have continued to improve our performance during 2018,” said CEO Mark Cutifani. “We now expect production to be 2% above the previous estimate and costs below 5%.”
He added that production is expected to increase by 3% in 2019, with cost inflation absorbed by productivity and cost improvements. An additional production increase of 5% is expected in 2020 and 2021.
“Within the next 3-5 years, we will basically grow the business by around 20%,” Cutifani said.
The company estimates a firm copper production increase of 660,000 tons, versus its previous estimate of 630,000-660,000 tons.
In addition to its copper operations in Chile — Los Bronces, Collahuasi and El Soldado — the company is developing the Quellaveco project in Peru, which is expected to start operating in 2022.
In the first nine months of the year, the company’s copper production totaled 484,800 tons, 13% higher than the one recorded in the same period of 2017.
