Rio Tinto shot up Amrun-Australia’s bauxite production as iron ore sinks

Rio Tinto has accomplished its ramp-up of the Amrun project in far north Queensland as scheduled, strengthening the operations for better performance in the company’s bauxite division.

The gross output of the company has shot up 9% in 2019 when compared with the preceding year to 55.1 million tonnes.

Rio Tinto has given the credit towards the successful ramp-up of Amrun, which reached its design capacity during the December quarter.

The Amrun project has driven Rio Tinto to a 21% improvement in 3^rd party shipments which accounted for 40 million tonnes of bauxite.

The forecast of Rio Tinto’s 2020 production for the commodity is 55-58 million tonnes, conditional to weather and market conditions.

In the Pilbara, Western Australia, Rio Tinto shipped 86.8 million tonnes of iron ore during the December 2019 quarter, giving it 327.4 million tonnes for the year.

The company’s iron ore output was 3% lower than 2018 due to weather and operational challenges in the first half of 2019, including 12 days of limited rail capacity for 12 days from extended maintenance.

In the United States, Rio Tinto recorded a 5% downfall in copper production at the Kennecott mine against 2018 (to 577,000 tonnes) because of lower grades being mined.

Rio Tinto expects that lower grades will persist well into 2020 until it has access to higher grades from the end of the calendar year due to phase one of the south wall pushback projects.

There will also be a 45-day planned maintenance shutdown at Kennecott in the second quarter of 2020, which is a standard rebuild completed at the site every three years.

Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said despite the operational challenges across its commodities, the company finished the year with good momentum.