Chile’s Codelco, the world’s second
largest copper miner, has fallen further behind BHP (ASX: BHP) in the top
producers of the metal’s rank, after reporting that its output
for 2019 had fallen by 5.3% to 1.588 million tonnes.
BHP, the world’s biggest mining
company, churned
out last year 1.749 million tonnes of copper and expects to produce between
1.705 million and 1.820 million tonnes in 2020.
The Chilean miner, which hands all
its revenue over to the state, attributed the drop in production to
unusual bad weather in the first half of the year, strikes at its Chuquicamata mine
and operational issues.
Profit for the year fell 17%
compared to 2018 to $1.34 billion, while direct cash costs increased 1.8%.
Codelco said the poor financial
results were a combination lower gross margins, the downward tendency of copper
prices, a reduction in physical sales of the metal and molybdenum and weak
results obtained from associated investments,
Colin Hamilton, managing director
of commodities research at BMO Capital Markets, had anticipated
earlier this week that the copper company would soon have to sell non-core
assets.
“Any thoughts of shutting
unprofitable operations, however, are off the agenda for now given the need to
ensure employment,” he wrote in a note to investors.
Hamilton also noted that Codelco
was looking increasingly unlikely to be the world’s largest copper miner from
this year forward, as depletion and restrictions prove to be headwinds that are
too strong.
The escalating number of Chileans
infected with the novel coronavirus forced the company on Wednesday to suspend
some key projects, including work being carried out to finish transforming
Chuquicamata into an underground mine, and early stage projects at Rajo Inca
and Traspaso Andina.
The halted projects are part of a
10-year, $40 billion ongoing plan to upgrade its aging mines and keep up
production rates. The scheme, however, could further jeopardized by the effects
of the measures taken to deal with the global pandemic crisis.
“Although the country’s
government has taken proactive measures to contain the economic and health
impacts of the covid-19, the ripple effects of a copper supply shock remain to
be seen,” Mariano Pablo Machado, senior Americas analyst at global risk
consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, said
this week.
Codelco operates seven mines and
four smelters, all in Chile. Its assets account for 10% of the world’s known
proven and probable reserves and about 11% of the global annual copper output.