Anglo American PLC said on Thursday it expects to ‘substantially’ complete divesting some assets by end of next year as the diversified miner reported mostly lower production at its operations, including copper, coal and diamond.

The London-based diversified miner in May unveiled its new strategy aimed at divesting some assets after managing to thwart a bid by rival BHP Group Ltd to take over Anglo American.

Back in May, Anglo American did not indicate when it expected this asset divestment to be finished.

Anglo American intends to ‘demerge’ Anglo American Platinum Ltd and also ‘divest’ or ‘demerge’ De Beers as part of its new strategy. It also wants to divest its steelmaking coal business.

On Thursday, the company said it is working ‘at pace’ to execute on the asset divestments and noted it aims to ‘substantively’ complete the transformation by the end of 2025.

Releasing its production report for the second quarter to June 30, Anglo American said on Thursday that copper output fell 6.2% to 196,000 tonnes from 209,000 tonnes a year earlier, driven by lower throughput at Los Bronces and El Soldado mines in Chile, and ‘planned’ lower grades at Quellaveco mine in Peru.

Compared to the first quarter, copper output was down 1.0% from 198,000 tonnes.

Anglo American maintained its annual copper production guidance at between 730,000 tonnes and 790,000 tonnes, compared to 826,000 tonnes in 2023.

Iron ore production was flat on an annual basis at 15.6 million ounces for the second quarter, after Minas-Rio mine in Brazi achieved a record second-quarter performance. Output was up 3.3% from 15.1 million tonnes in the first quarter.

Anglo American guides for 2024 iron ore production of between 58 million tonnes and 62 million tonnes, compared to 59.9 million tonnes in 2023.

In a separate filing, Kumba Iron Ore Ltd on Thursday reported a 2.9% decline in iron ore production to 9.18 million tonnes for the second quarter from 9.45 million tonnes in the same quarter last year, while output was down 0.9% from 9.27 million tonnes in the first quarter.

Kumba is subsidiary in which Anglo American owns 70% stake.

For Anglo American, platinum group metals production declined by 2.3% to 921,000 ounces on-year from 943,000 ounces, reflecting expected lower volumes from Kroondal mine in South Africa, which is reported as third-party purchase of concentrate, and lower production at Mototolo, Mogalakwena and Unki also in South Africa.

Annual PGM production guidance for Anglo American ranges between 3.3 million ounces and 3.7 million ounces, down from 3.8 million ounces in 2023.

Separately, Anglo American Platinum posted a 6.0% rise in total refined production to 1.28 million ounces in the second quarter from 1.21 million ounces a year before, while production surged 63% from 788,200 ounces in the first quarter.

Anglo American said diamonds production slumped 15% on an annual basis to 6.4 million carats from 7.6 million carats. Output was down from 6.9 million carats on a quarterly basis.

The 2024 diamond production estimate is between 26 million carats and 29 million carats, compared to 31.9 million carats in 2023.

Steelmaking coal output rose 26% annually to 4.2 million tonnes from 3.4 million tonnes, while production was up 12% from 3.8 million tonnes.

Anglo American kept production at Grosvenor steelmaking coal mine in Queensland, Australia, suspended. Grosvenor’s production is excluded from steelmaking coal guidance for the second half of the year. Late last month, the Grosvenor mine experienced an underground fire.

Annual guidance for steelmaking coal production ranges from 14 million tonnes and 15.5 million tonnes. In 2023, output was 16.0 million tonnes.

Annually, nickel production was 1.0% higher at 10,000 tonnes from 9,900 tonnes. Output rose 5% from 9,500 tonnes on-quarter.

Manganese ore production plunged 63% annually to 356,000 tonnes from 970,000 tonnes, while it dropped 55% from 784,000 tonnes from the first quarter.

Anglo American shares were up 1.9% to 2,319.00 pence early Thursday in London.

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