BHP achieved a new record at its Escondida copper mine, with production levels in the second half (H2) of 2024 their highest in 10 years.
Escondida, which BHP operates and shares in a joint venture with Rio Tinto and JECO Corp, produced 644,000 tonnes in H2 2024, a 22 per cent uptick from H2 2023.
Quarterly (Q4 2024) production of 339,800 tonnes was a 33 per cent increase from the prior corresponding period (the fourth quarter of 2023).
BHP said the 10-year production record at Escondida can be attributed to a higher concentrator feed grade of 1.03 per cent. In H2 2023, the feed grade sat at 0.81 per cent.
Escondida’s performance came as Copper South Australia, which comprises the Olympic Dam, Carrapateena and Prominent Hill mines, was impacted by a weather-related power outage. This saw Q4 2024 production drop 13 per cent compared with Q4 2023.
“Strong underlying performance in Q1 was followed by a two-week weather-related power outage due to a significant storm at the beginning of Q2,” BHP said. “The integrity of all major infrastructure was maintained at Olympic Dam during the outage.
“Ramp up after the outage was achieved safely over the subsequent two weeks, and since then performance has been strong with 30,000 tonnes of copper production achieved across Copper SA in December.”
BHP’s Western Australian Iron Ore (WAIO) business also achieved a new mark, shipping record half-year tonnes through the Port Hedland port. This was enabled by a port debottlenecking project, which unlocked improved car dumper cycle times and ship-loader performance.
The Big Australian said mine performance was also strong, contributing to a two per cent quarter-on-quarter iron ore production uptick.
“Production increased as a result of continued strong supply chain performance with record volumes delivered from the Central Pilbara hub (South Flank and Mining Area C) following the completion of the ramp up of South Flank in FY24.”
BHP said its now on track to achieve the upper half of its FY25 WAIO production guidance (250–260Mt).
The company’s FY25 copper guidance remains unchanged at between 1.845–2.045Mt.
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