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(Kitco News) - British mining giant Anglo American (AAL.L, AAM.SW) said today that its copper operations' full year 2021 production of 647 thousand tonnes was in line with the prior year, mitigating the ongoing water challenges from the severe drought conditions.

The company added that its platinum group metals (PGM) operations more than doubled refined production in Q4 2021 and resulted in a record full year refined production of 5.1Moz.

The company’s rough diamond production increased by 29% to 32.3 million carats in 2021, primarily due to higher production from Jwaneng in Botswana as well as in Namibia, reflecting planned higher production in response to strong consumer demand.

Anglo American also reported that its full year 2021 iron ore production increased by 3%, although lower in the quarter, despite unplanned maintenance at Minas-Rio and third-party rail performing below planned levels affecting Kumba's production for the year.

Looking into 2022, CEO Mark Cutifani said, "As we move into 2022, we are pleased with the construction progress at Quellaveco, our new copper mine in Peru. We are on track and within budget, we mined our first ore in October 2021, and we are expecting our first production of copper concentrate in the middle of this year. In the first quartile of the cost curve, we expect Quellaveco to produce 120,000-160,000 tonnes of copper production in 2022 and to average 300,000 tonnes per year for the first ten years at full production."

Anglo American is a leading global mining company which producing diamonds (through De Beers), copper, platinum group metals, the steelmaking ingredients of iron ore and metallurgical coal, and nickel.

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