[Ferro-Alloys.com] South32 Chief Executive Officer, Graham Kerr: "We continued our strong start to the year, maintaining production guidance for all of our operations except Mozal Aluminium, as we continue to mitigate the impact of civil unrest in Mozambique.

“We achieved strong results in the December 2024 quarter, delivering higher base metals production and increasing alumina production by 14 per cent, capturing the benefit of strong alumina prices.

“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.

“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.

“At Hermosa, construction of the zinc-lead-silver Taylor deposit reached a significant milestone as we commenced shaft sinking in the quarter. We also progressed development of an exploration decline at the Clark battery-grade manganese deposit and exploration drilling at the Peake copper deposit to unlock further value across our broader land package.

“We also continued to strengthen our growth pipeline, embedding additional copper exploration options in highly prospective regions during the period."

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.

AUSTRALIA MANGANESE (60% SHARE)

Australia Manganese continued to implement its operational recovery plan following the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Megan in the March 2024 quarter.

We continued a substantial dewatering program which has enabled access to certain mining pits and a phased restart of mining activities. We resumed production from the primary concentrator as planned in the December 2024 quarter with saleable production of 639kwmt. FY25 production guidance remains unchanged at 1,000kwmt, with production expected to continue at limited rates in the second half of FY25 as we progress the recovery plan and complete further dewatering.

Construction of a critical bridge that connects the northern pits of the Western Leases mining area and the processing plant progressed as planned in the December 2024 quarter and remains on track to be completed in the March 2025 quarter.

During the December 2024 quarter, we progressed the demolition of undersea structures, and commenced installing the pilings for the new wharf. While we have experienced some weather related delays, a second jack-up barge has arrived on site and is expected to improve the productivity of the pilings installation.

Subject to further potential impacts from the wet season, export sales are expected to progressively increase over the June 2025 quarter.

SOUTH AFRICA MANGANESE (ORE 54.6% SHARE)

South Africa Manganese saleable production decreased by 3% (or 29kwmt) to 1,082kwmt in the December 2024 half year, as we reduced our use of higher cost trucking and undertook a temporary shut at our Wessels mine in the December 2024 quarter, in response to market conditions. While FY25 production guidance remains unchanged at 2,000kwmt, we will continue to monitor and respond to market conditions.

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• [Editor:tianyawei]