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Mining company South32 reported a "strong finish" to its 2019 financial year, with revenue equivalent production growing 10% in the last quarter ending in June and 3% for the year.
It also said it achieved record annual production at Hillside Aluminium (715,000 tonnes), increased production at Illawarra Metallurgical Coal by 57% and delivered 5.5m tonnes of manganese ore into a favourable market.
Full-year alumina production was virtually unchanged year on year at 5.05m tonnes, but up 9% in the last quarter compared with the previous one. Annual energy coal output fell 7% over the year to 26.2m tonnes on the back of extended outages. The last quarter was up 12% on the previous quarter, however.
Full-year metallurgical coal production was up 69% on the year at 5.35m tonnes while manganese ore production was virtually unchanged from 2018 levels at 5.5m tonnes. "We also continued to benefit from strong prices for our core commodities during the year, distributing US$657 million in dividends to shareholders and allocating US$281 million to our on-market buy-back. At year end we had completed US$986 million of our approved US$1 billion capital management programme," said Graham Kerr, CEO.
In the June quarter, the company said it had received bids for South Africa Energy Coal and was engaging with the bidders regarding their offers.
The miner said it expected to provide a further update in the December 2019 half-year.
At 8:36am: (LON:S32) South32 Limited share price was -1.6p at 168.4p