Glencore Reports Decline in Copper, Cobalt, Zinc, Nickel, and Coal Production in First Half of 2024
Swiss-based mining group Glencore announced a decrease in its copper production by 5% to 462,600 tons in the first half of 2024. On a like-for-like basis, this figure was 2% lower after adjusting for the sale of 15,000 tons of Cobar volumes in June 2023.
The company's own-sourced cobalt output dropped by 27% to 15,900 tons. This decline was attributed to planned lower run-rates at the Mutanda mine due to weak cobalt prices and reduced throughput and cobalt grades at KCC.
Zinc production also fell by 4% to 417,200 tons, mainly due to lower zinc output from Antamina, linked to its copper/zinc mine sequence for the year. This was partly offset by increased production from the Zhairem mine.
Nickel production decreased by 5% to 44,200 tons, primarily due to the Koniambo mine transitioning to care and maintenance. This was somewhat counterbalanced by recovery from supply chain constraints in the INO operations and higher production from the Murrin mine. Excluding Koniambo, nickel production was 16% higher compared to the previous year.
Coal production saw a 7% decline to 50.6 million tons. This was largely due to scheduled mine closures, temporary impacts from longwall moves in Australia, and export rail constraints in South Africa. Despite this, Glencore has raised its full-year guidance for steelmaking coal to 19-21 million tons, up from the previous 7-9 million tons, to include an additional 12 million tons in the second half of 2024 from the recently acquired Elk Valley Resources (EVR) steelmaking coal business. The energy coal guidance remains unchanged at 98-106 million tons.
