20 JANUARY 2025
We’ve released our Quarterly Report for December 2024, in which we continued our strong start to the year.
During the quarter we maintained production guidance for all of our operations except Mozal Aluminium as we continue to mitigate the impact of civil unrest in Mozambique. Meanwhile, we reached a significant construction milestone at our Hermosa Project as we commenced shaft sinking.
“We delivered higher base metals production in the December quarter and increased alumina production by 14 per cent, capturing the benefit of strong alumina prices,” said Graham Kerr, South32 Chief Executive Officer.
Aluminium production increased by 5% in the December 2024 half year as Hillside Aluminium continued to test its maximum technical capacity and low-carbon aluminium production from Brazil Aluminium and Mozal Aluminium increased by 12%.
Worsley Alumina received State environmental approval for the Worsley Mine Development Project and remains on track to receive Federal approval in the March 2025 quarter.
Sierra Gorda payable copper equivalent production increased by 21% in the December 2024 half year as the operation continued to benefit from improved ore quality in the current phase of the mine plan.
Cannington delivered a 56% increase in payable zinc equivalent production in the December 2024 quarter, as we completed additional dewatering in the prior quarter, and realised higher planned lead and silver grades.
Australia Manganese resumed production from the primary concentrator and progressed construction of infrastructure as part of the recovery plan. A further US$150M (100% basis) of insurance claims were approved in the December 2024 quarter.
“We returned US$169M to shareholders, paying fully-franked ordinary dividends in respect of the prior six months and continuing our on-market share buy-back, leaving US$171M to be returned to shareholders under our capital management program,” said Graham.
“Having successfully divested Illawarra Metallurgical Coal in the September 2024 quarter, we have a strong balance sheet and platform for growth in minerals and metals critical to the world’s energy transition.”
We reached a significant milestone in construction of the zinc-lead-silver Taylor deposit at Hermosa as we commenced shaft sinking, as well as commissioning the hoisting structure for the ventilation shaft and completing earthworks for the processing plant site. We also progressed development of an exploration decline for the Clark battery-grade manganese deposit and continued to test the potential for a continuous copper system connecting the Peake copper deposit and Taylor Deeps.
Over the half year we invested US$18M in our greenfield exploration opportunities as we progressed multiple exploration programs targeting base metals in Australia, USA, Canada, Argentina, Namibia and Ireland.
We also added to our portfolio of exploration options, by acquiring a 19.9% interest in American Eagle Gold Corp (AEG) for US$22M in the December 2024 quarter. AEG holds an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Nakinilerak exploration prospect, located within the Babine copper-gold porphyry district in British Columbia, Canada.
Thank you to all our people around the world for your efforts in achieving a strong first half.
Download the full quarterly report here.