Anglo American (LON:AAL) faces another round of retrenchment after the recent slump in commodity prices, its chief executive has warned.
The mining giant saw underlying earnings slump by 36% in the half year to June US$1.88bn, on revenues 13% lower at US$13.3bn.
After US$3.5bn of impairment charges including US$2.9bn for its Minas-Rio iron ore operation in Brazil, the group posted a pre-tax loss of US$1.92bn.
Mark Cutifani has been cutting costs and trying to sell unwanted assets ever since he took over two and half years ago, but unveiled 6,000 new job cuts today as part of a plan to slash expenditure and boost earnings by a further US$1.5bn.
The miner recently sold its half share of building materials group Lafarge for close to £1bn and Cutifani said it expects to have reduced its portfolio to 40 businesses from 55 once the disposal programme is complete.
Weaker commodity prices knocked US$1.9bn from first half earnings, with iron ore’s contribution more US$700mln down, copper slumped 77% to US$174mln and diamond arm De Beers saw a US$200mln dip.
Platinum recovered from the strikes in South Africa last year to past a profit of US$272mln.
Shares rose as the company maintained its dividend and analysts said the underlying performance was better than expected.