The strong performance recovery in the second half of 2020 continued in the fourth quarter of the year, says diversified miner Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani.

“As expected, second-half production returned to 95% of 2019 rates, benefiting from strong performances in copper at Los Bronces, in Chile, and in iron-ore at Minas-Rio, in Brazil.

“The recovery was all the more credible given planned maintenance at both the Collahuasi copper and Kumba iron-ore operations and the suspension of operations at the Grosvenor metallurgical coal mine,” he adds.

Copper production increased by 6% as Los Bronces secured access to industrial water for processing, while Collahuasi delivered record production for the 12-month period, which more than offset planned maintenance in the quarter.

Iron-ore production at Minas-Rio in Brazil increased by 5% to a record 6.5-million tonnes for the quarter.