Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto posted a fall in first-quarter iron ore production on Tuesday, blaming bad weather over western Australia.
January-March output of 66.4 million tonnes of ore was below most forecasts and six percent, or four million tonnes, down on the last three months of 2013.
The world's second largest mining company pointed to cyclone activity, which often plagues first-quarter figures from the resource-rich Pilbara region in Western Australia.
"Production in the first quarter was below fourth quarter levels due to disruption caused by seasonal weather patterns," the company said.
"Heavy rainfall associated with this cyclone and other adverse weather conditions in January and February impacted across mine, rail and port operations," it said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
Chief executive Sam Walsh said Rio Tinto had "started the year with a series of performance records as we continue to drive productivity gains across our operations".
"Our Pilbara iron ore business has again set new benchmarks for production, shipments and rail volumes for the first quarter and we are well on track to reach nameplate capacity of 290 million tonnes per annum by the end of the first half of 2014," he said.
Copper production also slipped from the last quarter of 2013, down six percent to 156,500 tonnes.
Rio staged a dramatic turnaround in 2013 to report a US$3.67 billion annual net profit after major cost-cutting that saw thousands of workers sacked and capital spending slashed.
Walsh was brought to turn around the firm, which lost US$3.03 billion in 2012 -- its first plunge into the red in 18 years -- after US$14.36 billion in writedowns.
Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto posted a fall in first-quarter iron ore production on Tuesday, blaming bad weather over western Australia.
January-March output of 66.4 million tonnes of ore was below most forecasts and six percent, or four million tonnes, down on the last three months of 2013.
The world’s second largest mining company pointed to cyclone activity, which often plagues first-quarter figures from the resource-rich Pilbara region in Western Australia.
“Production in the first quarter was below fourth quarter levels due to disruption caused by seasonal weather patterns,” the company said.
“Heavy rainfall associated with this cyclone and other adverse weather conditions in January and February impacted across mine, rail and port operations,” it said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
Chief executive Sam Walsh said Rio Tinto had “started the year with a series of performance records as we continue to drive productivity gains across our operations”.
“Our Pilbara iron ore business has again set new benchmarks for production, shipments and rail volumes for the first quarter and we are well on track to reach nameplate capacity of 290 million tonnes per annum by the end of the first half of 2014,” he said.
Copper production also slipped from the last quarter of 2013, down six percent to 156,500 tonnes.
Rio staged a dramatic turnaround in 2013 to report a US$3.67 billion annual net profit after major cost-cutting that saw thousands of workers sacked and capital spending slashed.
Walsh was brought to turn around the firm, which lost US$3.03 billion in 2012 — its first plunge into the red in 18 years — after US$14.36 billion in writedowns.
