Own sourced copper production was down 3% to 1,502,200 tonnes in 2015, reflecting the suspension of processing operations at Katanga and a significant curtailment at Mopani. These volume reductions were partly offset by increases at Antapaccay (restart of the Tintaya mill in May 2015) and Antamina (strong milling performance).
Own sourced zinc production was 1,444,800 tonnes, up 4%. The increase reflects, that prior to our October announcement regarding a number of measures to preserve the value of resources in the ground, the Australian assets, in particular, had ramped up significantly compared to 2014 levels. The announced production changes reduced full year mined zinc production by some 100,000 tonnes compared to pre-announcement guidance. Q4 2015 zinc production was 20% below Q3 2015.
Own sourced nickel production was 96,200 tonnes, down 5%, due to the planned six-week shutdown of the Sudbury smelter and the impact of the metal leak at Koniambo in December 2014. Refinery production including third party was in line with 2014.
Attributable ferrochrome production was 1,462,000 tonnes, 13% up on 2014, due to a full year’s contribution from the Lion 2 smelter.
Coal production was down 10% to 131.5 million tonnes primarily due to curtailed production in response to market conditions and deconsolidation of Optimum Coal since its August 2015 placement into business rescue proceedings.
Oil entitlement production increased by 44% to 10.6 million barrels, reflecting increased attributable production from the Badila and Mangara fields in Chad.
Full year production guidance for 2016 is shown on page 20.
We have agreed our second precious metals streaming transaction amounting to $0.5 billion (see separate RNS announcement). Including the Antamina streaming transaction in H2 2015, our upfront proceeds from streaming total $1.4 billion to date.
