Xstrata reports increased production in thermal coal, platinum, nickel, zinc and lead

Xstrata (LSE: XTA) released their interim management statement and Q3 production report, revealing an increase in production compared with 2008, Xstrata's operating and financial performance continues to be strong.

Xstrata is a global diversified mining group, with a meaningful position in seven major international commodity markets: copper, coking coal, thermal coal, ferrochrome, nickel, vanadium and zinc, with a growing platinum group metals business. The mining group also has additional exposure to gold, cobalt, lead and silver, recycling facilities and a suite of global technology products. The Group's operations and projects span 19 countries.

Compared to Q3, Xstrata has increased production volumes for most of its operations such as thermal and semi-soft coal, platinum, refined nickel, zinc in concentrate and lead metal.

Xstrata said it had responded to improving demand in the second half of the year, its Alloy subsidiary increased ferrochrome capacity utilisation by 15% at the end of the third quarter. The increased production has also been supplemented by increasing prices, European benchmark ferrochrome price is 16% higher than the previous quarter.

During the period Xstrata approached the Board of Anglo American in an attempt to merge the company’s, however Anglo American rejected the approach. Last week Xstrata announced that it has no intention of making an offer for Anglo American.

Despite missing out on its proposed merger, Xstrata also moved forward with a number of its organic growth projects, with a number of expansions to its portfolio of its mining properties. This month the board approved the ATCOM East thermal coal project in South Africa. The project will be integrated into Xstrata Coal's existing ATCOM infrastructure and produce around 5.7m tonnes per annum of run of mine production and 3.1m tonnes per annum of saleable thermal coal.

Also last week, Xstrata Copper announced a $293m investment to increase the life of Lomas Bayas in Chile by eight years to 2020, sustaining production capacity at the recently expanded rate of 75,000 tonnes per year of copper cathode.

In its exploration activities, Xstrata Copper announced a revised Mineral Resource estimate for the Tampakan copper-gold project in the Philippines. The resource update significantly improved confidence levels, including a 25% increase in Measured tonnes and a 12% increase in Measured and Indicated tonnes.