LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Australian metals and mining company South32 upgraded annual production guidance for its South African manganese operations on Wednesday but left its projections unchanged for all other minerals after a mixed second quarter.
South32 saw increased levels of manganese and metallurgical coal production over the three months leading to 31 December after its Australian mining projects started up again, but the group also posted declines in alumina, nickel, zinc, lead and silver production throughout the quarter.

The firm said steepening industry cost curves during the last six months of the calendar year as result of the weakened US dollar and rising commodity prices affected unit costs, particularly in its smelters and refineries.

Graham Kerr, South32's chief executive, said, "A record quarter of performance and supportive market dynamics have allowed us to increase FY18 production guidance at South Africa Manganese by 8%, while production guidance for all other operations remains unchanged."

"In accordance with our disciplined capital management framework we distributed $333m in shareholder dividends during the December 2017 half year and purchased a further $37M shares for a cash consideration of $93m," he added.

Woodseer estimated an interim dividend of AUD 5c (2.9p) with an ex-div date of 8 March 2018 and also forecasted a final dividend of AUD 8c with an ex-div date of 13 September.

As of 1040 GMT, shares had lost 0.88% to 224.00p.

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