BHP Group, the world’s biggest miner, announced flat year-on-year first-quarter iron ore output as a planned maintenance at a key port hurt volumes, said Reuters citing the group’s production update.
The company’s iron ore output was 69 million tons (Mt) for the three months ended September 30. The Anglo-Australian miner maintained its fiscal 2020 iron ore production forecast of 273Mt to 286Mt.
“Group production in iron ore and copper, both projected to contribute a combined 75% of group EBITDA in FY20 has missed our forecast by 1-2%, said Morgan Stanley in a report.
According to the Financial Times, the miner will decide whether to go ahead with a giant Canadian potash project in 2021 after spending a further $345m on final preparation work.
BHP’s board would be asked to approve the $5bn Jansen mine in February 2021 and that the extra money would help inform the decision. “Work on engineering to support project planning and on finalising the port solution is required and the board has approved $144m for these activities,” the Financial Times quoted BHP to have said in a trading update.
“An additional $201m of funding was approved to further de-risk the project, focusing on the mine’s scope of work,” it added.
Potash is attractive to BHP because it offers diversification, said the Financial Times. Fertiliser prices are generally not correlated with the other commodities it produces like iron ore and copper, it said.
