ANTO Antofagasta Plc

By Joe Wallace

Unrest in Chile is likely to reduce copper output by Antofagasta PLC (ANTO.LN) this year, the mining company said Wednesday. Here are the highlights of its third-quarter production report.

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Copper Output

Antofagasta said it produced 584,200 metric tons of copper in the first nine months of the year, 16% higher than during the same period of 2018. Driving the increase: higher grades of copper ore at Centinela in northern Chile, and higher volumes of material passing through Centinela's concentrate and oxide plants.

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Copper Outlook

Antofgasta said recent civil unrest in Chile could disrupt the delivery of supplies as well as the movement of workers to its mines. The miner expects the protests to cut output by around 5,000 tons, but held its forecast for 2019 output at 750,000-790,000 tons.

Antofagasta said labor negotiations at Antucoya, where workers declared a strike on Oct. 15 and which produced 56,100 tons of copper in the first three quarters, should conclude by the end of the year. All but essential operations will be shut down during the strike.

Overall copper production is set to fall to 725,000-755,000 tons in 2020 as the quality of ore at Centinela declines, before output rises again in 2021.

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Gold

Antofagasta produced 226,600 ounces of gold in the first nine months of the year, up 89% from the same period of 2018. But output of the precious metal fell 11% from the second to the third quarter, as the grade of gold at Centinela declined.

Write to Joe Wallace at Joe.Wallace@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 23, 2019 05:26 ET (09:26 GMT)

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