JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Given the sharply lower commodity price environment, particularly for bulk commodities, Anglo American said on Wednesday that it expected to record noncash impairment charges in its 2014 results.

The London- and Johannesburg-listed diversified major, headed by CEO Mark Cutifani, added in a media release that full details of the 2014 financial year impairment charges would be provided when the company published its preliminary results on February 13.

On the production front, higher platinum, iron-ore, coal output for the three months to December 31 saw the company's shares rise by more than 2.6% in Johannesburg before mid afternoon.

The company also outlined in its quarter-four (Q4) production report that exploration and evaluation expenditure had been cut by 34% to $110-million, 52% out of evaluation expenditure, which fell to $49-million, and $2-million out of mainly nickel exploration expenditure, reducing the overall Q4 exploration spend to $61-million.

Equivalent refined platinum production rose 14% to 593 900 oz mainly on higher output at the Amandelbult, Rustenburg and Union underground mines. The opencast Mogalakwena mine also lifted Q4 production on higher concentrator throughput and better mining productivity.

Kumba Iron Ore’s Q4 output rose 10% to 12.4-million tons on the implementation of the group’s operating model and a production recovery plan, with waste removal at the Sishen iron-ore mine continuing to be the operational focus. The fourth quarter also saw iron-ore production beginning at the Minas-Rio iron-ore project in Brazil.

Production of export metallurgical coal rose 4% to 4.9-million tons in Q4 on a performance step change at the Grasstree colliery in Australia and on longwall moves made a year prior.

Export thermal coal production increased 2% to 9.7-million tons mainly as a result of upped Australian and South African output.

Copper production was down 18% to 174 800 t as a result of the decline of grade at Los Bronces and Collahuasi in South America.

In light of rebuilding of the line two furnace at the Barro Alto nickel operation in Brazil, nickel production fell 34% to 6 700 t.

Diamond production decreased 8% to 8.4-million carats owing to lower grades at the Orapa mine in Botswana and the Venetia mine in South Africa’s Limpopo province. Snap Lake in Canada also produced fewer diamonds as a result of a mandatory safety stoppage.