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African Minerals reports lower Q3 sales, production

5th November 2013

By: Creamer Media Reporter

  

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – London-listed African Minerals remained confident of meeting its restated full-year sales guidance of between 11-million and 13-million tonnes, despite reporting lower production and sales for the third quarter of the year.

The company had initially expected to sell between 13-million and 15-million tonnes of iron-ore for the full year but, in September, lowered the guidance to the 11-million- to 13-million-tonne range.

The developer and operator of the Tonkolili iron-ore mine, in Sierra Leone, on Tuesday reported a 25% quarter-on-quarter drop in production to three-million tonnes for the three months ended September 30, compared with the four-million tonnes produced in the quarter ended June 30.

African Minerals attributed the lower quarterly production to a drop in the mass yield to 75%, compared with 89% in the second quarter of the year, owing to the bulk of processing capacity being dedicated to producing lump and fines material. In line with its wet season strategy, the mine stockpiled fines material for export in the upcoming dry season, while lump material was being blended with other material to create a lump blend.

Meanwhile, iron-ore sales for the third quarter reached 2.8-million tonnes, down 17.6% on the 3.4-million tonnes produced in the second quarter of the year. This brought total iron-ore sales for the year to date to 8.3-million tonnes.

Operational issues with the company’s fleet of four transshipment vessels in July and August, resulted in, on average, only two of the four vessels being available throughout the quarter.

This resulted in export capability being reduced to five to six ocean-going vessels (OGVs) a month throughout the quarter, compared with seven to eight OGVs a month in the previous quarter.

This, together with constrained product availability, resulted in the quarter-on-quarter drop in iron-ore sales.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Online Managing Editor

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