NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) - Early indications of first-quarter mined copperoutput point to a softening trend of mine supply growth this year that should keepglobal production deficits firmly in place through 2011.
Declining ore grades and adverse weather conditions at operations of 11 of thebiggest publicly listed miners crimped output by 8 percent in the quarter, snappinga string of three straight quarterly increases, corporate reports showed last month.The figures exclude Chile's state-owned Codelco [CODEL.UL], which accounts foraround 11 percent of the world's mined copper.
Following is a list of production totals from 11 of the world's biggest miningcompanies:
QtrlyName Q1 2010 Q2 2010 Q3 2010 Q4 2010 Q1 2011 Pct changeFreeport 337,020 337,470 382,380 368,320 349,720 -5.0 pctBHP Billition 229,100 291,100 291,200 302,300 273,600 -9.5 pctXstrata 222,970 211,180 233,650 245,700 209,935 -14.6 pctRio Tinto 165,300 167,900 159,700 185,200 141,400 -23.7 pctAnglo American Plc 160,800 154,700 153,400 154,400 138,800 -10.1 pctSouthern Copper 109,240 113,540 125,190 130,550 124,190 -4.9 pctAntofagasta 117,700 135,200 140,700 127,500 129,800 1.8 pctNorilsk 97,000 94,700 91,300 89,140 94,000 5.5 pctGrupo Mexico 158,850 166,890 177,970 184,270 167,100 -9.3 pctFirst Quantum 85,060 85,400 76,630 75,600 74,900 -0.9 pctKGHM 129,000 139,000 137,000 142,000 140,000 -1.4 pctTotals 1,812,040 1,897,080 1,969,120 2,004,980 1,843,445 -8.1 pct