PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner Rio Tinto has reported increased production during the second quarter of the year for most of its commodities, compared with the second quarter of the previous year.

Iron-ore production for the quarter increased by 7% to 66-million tonnes, while record first-half production, shipments and rail volumes were reported, despite a conveyor-belt breakage resulting in one of five shiploaders being sidelined for nearly three weeks, as well as unseasonal wet weather in the Pilbara.

First-half iron-ore production reached 120-million tonnes, as the company’s expansion programmes in the Pilbara increased.

Rio Tinto CEO Sam Walsh said on Tuesday that, despite the challenging weather conditions in the Pilbara, the company’s 290-million-tonne-a-year iron-ore expansion remained on track to deliver first tonnes by the end of the third quarter.

The Phase 2 expansion of the port, rail and power infrastructure to 360-million tonnes a year was also under way.

Meanwhile, mined copper during the quarter also increased by 10% to 146 200 t.

Walsh noted that a new milestone was reached in Mongolia, with the Oyu Tolgoi copper/gold mine making its first shipment of copper concentrate to China.

The higher copper production in the second quarter was also driven by higher grades at the Kennecott Utah project, while mined copper production at Escondida also increased by 3% on 2012 figures.

Rio also reported that aluminium production for the quarter was up by 7% to 901 000 t, while titanium dioxide feedstock production was up by 25% to 461 000 t.

However, hard coking coal production for the quarter was down by 5%, to 1.9-million tonnes, with Australian production down 12% on the previous quarter.

The mining giant reported that the drop in hard coking coal production was largely as a result of the planned shutdown of the Kestrel mine coal handling and preparation plant for upgrade works, as part of the Kestrel mine expansion project.

Coal production from Kestrel South was started in July, and would ramp up during a gradual transition of production as the existing mine wound down. The project was expected to reach full capacity by the end of 2014, and produce an average of 5.7-million tonnes a year, over the next 20 years.

Semisoft coking coal and thermal coal production was up 23% on the previous corresponding period, to 7.12-million tonnes. This was driven by increased production from the Hunter Valley where operations changed their production profile to take advantage of the stronger short-term market for alternate product to hard coking coal, owing to wet weather in Queensland.