Antofagasta (LON:ANTO)
Full year copper production at Antofagsta (LON:ANTO) narrowly missed full year guidance of 710-740kt at 709.4kt despite a 12.5% YoY increase. Q4 2016 copper production of 206kt was up 14% QoQ and 22% higher YoY. 2016 gold production of 271koz was up 27% YoY at the upper end of guidance of between 245-275koz.
Despite weaker than planned copper production, net cash costs were ahead of guidance of US$1.25/lb at US$1.20/lb, down 20% YoY. Q4 2016 net cash costs were down 4.2% QoQ to US$1.13/lb.
Guidance for 2017 suggest broadly flat copper production at 685-720kt. Gold production is expected to decline significantly to between 185-205koz while molybdenum production is expected to modestly increase from 7.1kt in 2016 to 8.5-9.5kt in 2017. Capex was previously guided to below US$900m in 2017 while group cash costs are forecast to rise modestly to US$1.30/lb, due to a weaker by-product credit contribution. Operationally the outlook appears weaker in 2017, in our view; however, this is likely to be offset somewhat by stronger copper prices.
BHP Billiton (LON:BLT)
BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) has released weak results, with production declines in petroleum, copper and thermal coal in H1 FY 2017. Petroleum production of 106mmboe was down 15% YoY in H1 due to a sharp decline in onshore US production. Conventional production was largely flat, meanwhile. Copper production of 712kt was down 7% YoY as although Escondida production was flat at 452kt this was offset by maintenance at Pampa Norte and grade weakness at Antamina.
Iron ore production of 118mnt in H1 FY 2017 was up 4% YoY as production continued to ramp up at Jimblebar. Met coal production of 21mnt was up 1% YoY while thermal coal production was down 4% YoY to 14mnt.
Fresnillo (LON:FRES) has released strong results with silver production of 50.3mnoz, up 7% YoY and in line with guidance. Q4 2016 production of 13.3mnoz was up 10% YoY. FRES also benefitted from strong gold production of 934koz, up 23% YoY and ahead of guidance. This was enhanced by a one off inventory drawdown at Herradura. Guidance for 2017 is for continued strong silver production with a further annual increase to 58-61mnoz including 4mnoz from the silverstream. Gold production is again expected to be strong although without the inventory drawdown impact this will likely be lower at between 870-900koz.