Glencore, one of the world’s largest diversified mining groups, reduced copper production by 5% to 736 thousand tons in 9M2023, confirming its full-year forecast for the metal, the company said on Monday.
The decline reflects the sale of the Australian Cobar deposit in June 2023 and lower copper recovery rates as a by-product metal. Glencore still expects production of 1 million 40 thousand tons (with fluctuations in both directions of 30 thousand tons).
Nickel production decreased by 16% to 68.4 thousand tons. Glencore also cut its annual nickel forecast to 102 thousand tons (with a 4 thousand tonne deviation) from 112 thousand tons (with a 5 thousand tonne deviation). The decline is attributed to the ongoing recovery of Raglan’s productivity after the 2022 strike, maintenance downtime at the Sudbury plant and a revision of production at the Koniambo deposit.
Production of cobalt decreased by 2% (to 32.5 thousand tons), zinc – by 4% (to 672.1 thousand tons), coal – increased by 2% to 83.9 million tons. The annual forecasts were confirmed in all cases. The forecast for ferrochrome was lowered from 1.310 million tons (with a deviation of 30 thousand tons) to 1.2 million tons (with a deviation of 30 thousand tons).
Glencore continues to expect adjusted EBIT for 2023 to exceed the high end of its long-term guidance range of $2.2-3.2 billion per year, with a likely outcome in the range of $3.5-4 billion.
