JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Looking beyond this transitionary year, Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Anglo American will emerge as a highly differentiated, higher margin and more cash generative business, Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad predicted unequivocally on Thursday, when the diversified mining company reported continued portfolio simplification and on-track cost reduction.

Delivering a production report for the second quarter to June 30, Wanblad hailed the end-May demerger of Valterra Platinum as a great success, advised that a formal De Beers sale process was advancing, patted South Africa’s Kumba and Brazil’s Minas-Rio on the back for collectively delivering 2% more iron-ore totalling 15.9-million tonnes, reported a 109% increase in manganese output to 745 600 t and 2% more copper from the Quellaveco mine in Peru at 76 700 t, production increasing by 17% to 0.6-million carats at Venetia in South Africa, reflecting processing of increased volumes of higher-grade underground ore, and production at Jwaneng diamond mine in Botswana being broadly consistent with the prior period.

Otherwise, the second-quarter outputs of all other assets were down and some on the way out.

Reflecting a planned production response to the prolonged period of lower demand, overall rough diamond production was down 36% at 4.1-million carats.

Primarily owing to the suspension of Grosvenor since June 2024, the sale of Jellinbah in November and the production stoppage at Moranbah in March, steelmaking coal production was 51% down at 2.1-million tonnes.

Nickel production was 5% down at 9 500 t, production from platinum group metals (PGM) operations was 47% down at 492 100 oz.

In Botswana, diamond production was 44% down at 2.7-million carats; in Namibia, diamond production was 5% down at 0.5-million carats; in South Africa; the Venetia underground diamond mining project remained lower than during the prior opencast operations, with the capital spend being rephased while market conditions remained subdued, and diamond production in Canada was 46% down at 0.4-million carats owing to planned treatment of lower-grade ore.

TRADING PERFORMANCE

Rough diamond trading conditions remained challenged in the first half of 2025. Improved industry sentiment at the end of the first quarter led to stabilisation of polished diamond prices. But uncertainty surrounding US tariffs announced in April subsequently slowed polished trading.

In contrast to the ongoing challenging trading conditions, consumer demand for diamond jewellery remained broadly stable in the first half of the year.

Rough diamond sales from three second-quarter sights totalled 7.6-million carats, benefitting from stock rebalancing initiatives with specific assortments being sold at lower margins, generating consolidated rough diamond sales revenue of $1 185-million. This compared with three 2024 second-quarter sights of 7.8-million carats generating consolidated rough diamond revenue of $1 039-million.

Production guidance for 2025 is unchanged at 20-million to 23-million carats and 2025 unit cost guidance is unchanged at $94/ct.

Copper production guidance for 2025 is unchanged at 690 000 t to 750 000 t with copper unit cost guidance unchanged at 151c/lb.

Iron-ore production guidance is also unchanged at 57-million to 61-million tonnes with unit cost guidance at $36/t.

Exploration and evaluation expenditure for the continuing operations decreased by 2% to $65-million, exploration expenditure decreased by 29% to $22-million, and evaluation expenditure increased by 23% to $43-million.

Anglo is focused on copper, premium iron-ore and crop nutrients, future-enabling products for decarbonising the global economy, improving living standards, and providing food security.