11/08/2022

2022 Half Year Financial Report

Antofagasta plc has today released its 2022 Half Year Financial Report

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Antofagasta plc CEO Iván Arriagada said:

“Although we have experienced significant challenges over the half year – a volatile copper price as a result of macro developments, the continued drought in Chile, and an incident with our concentrate pipeline at Los Pelambres – the actions we have taken, coupled with the quality of our assets and balance sheet, have meant that we were able to weather the storm. Sales volumes during the period were lower as were copper prices and this is reflected in the 30% decline in revenue. As we previously announced, with the fall in production and higher input prices, cash costs were higher. And although we have experienced general inflation, the impact was offset by the weak Chilean peso.

“As we continue to decarbonise our business, we successfully moved all our mining operations away from using fossil fuels for energy generation and as of April this year, they are now all using 100% renewable energy.

“We expect the remainder of the year to look very different from the first half - as production improves quarter-on-quarter, we ship and sell the concentrate that was impacted by the concentrate pipeline incident, and the desalination plant at Los Pelambres starts, significantly alleviating the issue of water availability. We remain on track to produce our revised guidance of 640-660,000 tonnes of copper for the full year.

“While the short-term outlook remains uncertain for copper, inflation, global economics and geopolitics, we remain committed to maintaining our operating discipline and cost control, and a strong balance sheet.

“Copper’s critical role in the development of low-carbon technologies is essential for the energy transition and the long-term fundamentals for copper remain favourable. I am confident that Antofagasta’s strategy of developing mining for a better future is the right one and will deliver long-term value for all our stakeholders.

“In line with our normal 35% pay-out ratio for interims, the Board has declared an interim dividend of 9.2 cents per share.”

Read the announcement in full