Rio Tinto reports 14% decline in bauxite production in Q4 2018

Global miner Rio Tinto announced fourth quarter and full year 2018 production results.  Rio’s bauxite production in 2018 was one per cent lower than 2017, with strong production at Gove and the Andoom mining area in Weipa was offset by lower production at two non-managed operations.

The CBG mine in Guinea was impacted by planned tie-in works as part of the commissioning of the expansion project, and MRN in Brazil was affected by the Alunorte refinery outage. The company produced 50.4 million tonnes of in 2018.

During the fourth quarter of 2018, the company’s bauxite production dropped 14 per cent YoY to 11.7 million tonnes due to the planned transition of operations from East Weipa to Amrun in Queensland, and the tie-in works at CBG. 

The third party shipments of 32.8 million tonnes were achieved in 2018, 2 per cent higher than 2017. Fourth quarter shipments were 19 per cent lower than the fourth quarter of 2017, reflecting the lower quarterly production.

The company said the Amrun project achieved first shipment six weeks ahead of schedule, with a total of nine ships loading 0.6 million tonnes before the end of 2018.

Rio Tinto’s share of production in 2019 is expected to be between 56 and 59 million tonnes of bauxite.