London 21/04/2016 - Brazilian mining giant Vale set first-quarter production records for both copper and nickel, it said.
Nickel production jumped 4,300 tonnes or 6.2 percent to 73,500 tonnes in the first three months of the year due to the operational performance of Sudbury and record production from Vale New Caledonia, it said
Output from the Sudbury mines reached 19,500 tonnes in the first quarter, up 49.5 percent and up 70.8 percent than in fourth quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2015 respectively. Production from its New Caledonia plant jumped 48.1 percent to9,700 tonnes.
Copper production was also higher, climbing 5,300 tonnes to 109,900 tonnes in this period due to the successful ramp-up of Salobo.
Production of copper in concentrate at Salobo totalled 41,100 tonnes in the first quarter, up 16.4 percent on the same period of last year but down 2.3 percent on the fourth quarter of 2015. Salobo's copper production is likely to rise throughout 2016 as rainfall decreases.
Last year the company produced 291,000 tonnes of nickel and 423,800 tonnes of copper.
In February the company posted a massive net loss of $8.57 billion for the fourth quarter, wider than the loss of $1.85 billion it reported a year previously, because of impairment charges and lower commodity prices.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)