The comprehensive technology and innovation programme being intensively conducted by diversified mining major Anglo American is “coming out of the lab and into the field”, the company told Mining Weekly last week, when it reported continued performance improvement in the six months to June 30.

After announcing an 11% increase in underlying earnings to $4.6-billion and a 19% return on capital employed, Anglo American CE Mark Cutifani said the company was pursuing a wide range of opportunities in new bulk ore-sorting, crushing, processing, coarse particle flotation and waterless mine technologies.

“All those initiatives are in play and are being trialled on the ground in various parts of the business, and we think those, plus a few other things we’re doing, will be the key to us differentiating in the continuing improvement journey over the next three to five years,” he said.

South Africa’s Mogalakwena platinum mine, in Limpopo, has already seen its net cost of platinum falling from $950/oz to $250/oz.

“We think, with the new technologies, we can head it towards zero, and that’s the sort of thing we’re talking about – getting those quality assets up to their potential. We’re still chasing lots of opportunities,” Cutifani said.

Anglo CFO Stephen Pearce told Mining Weekly that the company had set itself a target to deliver from the start of 2018 to the end of 2022 another $3-billion to $4-billion benefit out of getting every piece of equipment and processing to benchmark performance and better.

“We’re really coming out of the lab and into the field. It’s something we’re really starting to roll out in a live environment over the next six to nine months,” said Pearce of the company’s new technology and innovation thrust.

“[We want to get] those quality assets up to their potential. We’re still chasing lots of opportunities.

“Our focus has changed from hunting technologies to hunting value,” Anglo American technical director Tony O’Neill told Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly in an exclusive interview last year.

Anglo’s capital allocation discipline has sharpened, which has seen net debt fall to $4-billion, an increase in the dividend commensurate with earnings, and the continuation of a big $5-billion investment with Mitsubishi in the Quellaveco copper project, in Peru.

A 6% increase in copper equivalent production volumes helped deliver $0.4-billion of cost and volume improvements in the first half out of the $0.8-billion targeted for the full year, against a backdrop of rising input cost inflation and the temporary suspension at the Minas-Rio iron-ore operation, in Brazil.

“We see significant further potential to deliver enhanced returns from the portfolio, with our business model and relentless focus on innovation and business improvement resetting our performance benchmarks. “As we now move forward to develop the world-class Quellaveco copper project, in Peru, in conjunction with our partner, Mitsubishi, we are excited about the opportunities we see across the business.”

An amount of $1.6-billion in attributable free cash flow was generated in the six months to June 30, with profit attributable to equity shareholders at $1.3-billion.

An increased interim dividend of $0.49 a share, 40% of first-half underlying earnings, has been declared.