{"id":109621,"date":"2026-07-29T17:51:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/109621\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T17:51:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:51:19","slug":"glencores-copper-assets-save-the-day-as-cobalt-falters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/109621\/","title":{"rendered":"Glencore\u2019s copper assets save the day as cobalt falters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glencore\u2019s copper assets came to the rescue in the mining and commodity trading giant\u2019s six months to end-June, offsetting poor cobalt output in the period.<\/p>\n

Glencore on Wednesday said copper production rose 15% in the period, helping to offset a 46% plunge in cobalt due to export quotas currently being imposed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).<\/p>\n

In its half-year production report<\/a> published on Wednesday, the group said own-sourced copper production of 397,000 tonnes was 15% higher than a year ago, primarily due to increased mining rates and improved grades at African Copper and higher grades at Antamina, Peru. <\/p>\n

However, that was partly offset by the planned closure of the Mount Isa copper mine in Queensland, Australia, in July 2025, it said.<\/p>\n

The company operates two copper and cobalt mining complexes in the DRC: Kamoto Copper Company and Mutanda Mining. <\/p>\n

CEO Gary Nagle said the group\u2019s most important assets performed largely in line with expectations and previously communicated guidance in the first half.<\/p>\n

Own-sourced production volumes for zinc, nickel, gold, steelmaking coal and energy coal were also higher, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFull-year 2026 production guidance for copper, zinc and nickel remains unchanged, while the midpoints of energy and steelmaking coal guidance are up by 1-million tonnes and down by 1-million tonnes, respectively,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The group is maintaining its original copper and zinc guidance despite completing the sale of Kidd Mine in Ontario, Canada, to Discovery Silver Corp at the beginning of June, with a corresponding rest-of-year loss of about 20 kilotonnes and 11kt of zinc and copper, respectively.<\/p>\n

The group expects to report a strong half-year for its marketing unit, with adjusted earning before interest and tax (ebit) of about $3.3bn.<\/p>\n

Production highlights:<\/p>\n

Own-sourced cobalt production of 10,200 tonnes was 46% below a year ago, mainly due to the DRC government\u2019s ongoing cobalt export quota regime.<\/a>Own-sourced zinc production of 365,600 tonnes was 21% lower than a year ago, mainly reflecting Queensland\u2019s Lady Loretta\u2019s end-of-mine life in late 2025 and lower zinc grades at Antamina. The decrease also reflects the disposal of the Kidd mine in Canada in June.Own-sourced nickel production of 35,800 tonnes was broadly in line with the first half of 2025, Glencore said.Steelmaking coal production of 13.5-million tonnes was 14% lower than a year ago due to lower throughput and yields, which are expected to normalise in the second half. Energy coal production of 47.4-million tonnes was down 2% from a year ago due to the voluntary production curtailment implemented at Cerrej\u00f3n in Colombia from the second quarter of 2025 in response to market conditions.<\/p>\n

The group has kept its full-year production guidance largely unchanged.<\/p>\n

Update: July 29 2026<\/p>\n

This article has been updated with new information. <\/p>\n

Business Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Glencore\u2019s copper assets came to the rescue in the mining and commodity trading giant\u2019s six months to end-June,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[123],"tags":[53243,53238,53241,53242,12139,53240,53236,132,5270,53244,53235,53237,53239],"class_list":["post-109621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-glencore","tag-african-copper","tag-cobalt-production","tag-commodity-production-report","tag-copper-mining-companies","tag-copper-production","tag-drc-mining","tag-energy-coal","tag-glencore","tag-glencore-share-price","tag-jse-stock-market","tag-mining-sector-earnings","tag-steelmaking-coal","tag-zinc-production"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117004539490936684","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}