Rio Tinto reports solid Q3 output, cuts Canadian iron ore guidance

(Sharecast News) - Mining giant Rio Tinto delivered a solid third quarter, with most operations delivering an increase in output compared with last year, though guidance for Canadian iron ore production was lowered. The company reduced its 2023 forecast for iron ore pellets and concentrate from its Iron Ore Company of Canada division to 9.3-9.8m tonnes (Mt), down from earlier guidance of 10-11Mt and the 10.3Mt mined last year. This was a result of extended plant downtime and conveyor belt failures, along with the continued recovery from wildfires in Northern Quebec earlier in the year.

Nevertheless, all other production guidance was unchanged.

Iron ore production from Australian Pilbara project, one of Rio Tinto's biggest assets, totalled 83.5Mt in the quarter, 1% down on last year but 3% ahead of the second quarter.

Elsewhere, bauxite output rose 2% year-on-year to 13.9Mt, aluminium levels increased 9% to 828,000 tonnes, while mined copper was up 5% at 169,000 tonnes. One negative was titanium dioxide slag production which fell 20% to 247,000 tonnes as a result of two furnaces at its RTIT Quebec Operations remaining offline due to a safety incident.

"We delivered another quarter of progress and maintained momentum at our Pilbara iron ore operations. We continued to make good headway ramping up our Oyu Tolgoi high-grade underground copper mine, our Kitimat aluminium smelter returned to full production, and we safely restarted the smelter and refinery at Kennecott after completing the largest rebuild in its history," said chief executive Jakob Stausholm.

"We have more to do as we work towards sustainable performance improvements across our business."

The stock was down 0.6% at 5,184p by 0813 BST.