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Third quarter 2005 operations review
19 October 2005
- The strong operational performance of the first half of the year continued through the third quarter with most operations producing at, or near, capacity.
- Hamersley shipped record volumes of iron ore. Two shipments were loaded from the new shiploader at Dampier and the Yandicoogina capacity expansion to 36 million tonnes per year was completed. Robe produced record volumes with the expansion of West Angelas capacity to 25 million tonnes per year completed.
- Kennecott Utah Copper focussed on higher molybdenum grade ore at the expense of mined copper production, to take advantage of the strong market for molybdenum. Third quarter molybdenum production was 21 per cent higher than the record second quarter. Refined copper production returned to normal following the smelter maintenance shut-down in the second quarter.
- Production of both copper and gold from the Grasberg mine was significantly higher than in the comparative period of 2004 when the operations were ramping-up following the recovery from the 2003 material slippage.
- Year to date alumina production was 42 per cent above the first nine months of 2004. Third quarter alumina production was seven per cent lower than the second quarter of 2005. Production from the Comalco Alumina Refinery was adversely affected by a maintenance shut-down brought forward from the fourth quarter. The Boyne Island, Tiwai Point and Bell Bay aluminium smelters all produced record volumes.
- In September, Rio Tinto approved its 40 per cent share of the development costs of the Cortez Hills gold project in Nevada.
All currency figures in this report are US dollars unless otherwise stated.
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