By Rhiannon Hoyle
SYDNEY--BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP.AU) said it expects to produce
more iron ore than previously anticipated from its Australian
mining operations in its fiscal year, as the world's largest miner
recorded a 20% on-year rise in quarterly output of the steelmaking
ingredient.
On Wednesday, BHP said it produced 59.0 million metric tons of
iron ore in the three months through March, up one-fifth on the
same period a year earlier and 5% on the quarter immediately prior.
In the first three quarters of its financial year, which ends June
30, output totaled 172.4 million tons, up 17% on-year.
BHP lifted group production guidance by 2% to 230 million tons
for the full year.
BHP operates an expansive network of iron-ore mines, railway and
port terminals in Australia's remote northwest, and also has
iron-ore interests in Brazil.
It said its Western Australian operations had produced a record
188 million tons of ore fiscal-year-to-date, including the share of
minority joint-venture partners. The miner also increased full-year
guidance for those operations by 2%, to 250 million tons.
The Anglo-Australian company said it had been running its
operations harder and had been little affected by wet weather in
the region last quarter.
"The potential of our installed infrastructure continues to
exceed expectations," BHP said. It said it would defer a project
designed to improve capacity for its inner harbour infrastructure
at Port Hedland, the world's largest iron-ore export hub.
BHP said the decision would slow its expansion to a targeted
290-million-ton capacity, but that the expansion would now come at
a lower cost.
The miner, meanwhile, said it should produce more metallurgical
coal than anticipated this year, but less copper.
Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com
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