Glencore retained its full year production guidance for its key commodities and reached Q1 2021 production volumes consistent with earlier projections, though declines in coal, lead, zinc, and nickel production were noted.
The miner’s copper output rose 3pc to 301,200mt in Q1 2021 versus 293,300mt in Q1 2020, driven by productivity upgrades and adjustments to the mine plan in South America including operations in Collahuasi, Antamina and Antapaccay. The company produced 282,600mt of zinc in Q1 2021, representing 4pc decline of 13,000mt compared to 295,600mt in Q1 2020. The drop was due to lower grade recovery at Kazzinc’s Maleevsky mine in Kazakhstan and adjustments made at Kidd mine.
Nickel production stood at 25,200mt in Q1 2021, 11pc less than 28,200mt in last year’s quarter, mainly due to maintenance outage at New Caledonia’s Koniambo mine. The group’s lead production declined by 10pc to 55,300mt in Q1 2021 against 61,700mt during the same quarter a year ago.
Steelmaking coal production fell by 7.4mn mt due to the care and maintenance outage at the Prodeco mine and production cuts due to market environment in Australia during H2 2020.