Mr. Greg Waller reports
TECK UPDATES ANNUAL COAL AND COPPER SALES GUIDANCE
Teck Resources Ltd. is providing an update today on its annual coaland copper sales guidance.As a result of the continuing labour disruption of the company's Elkviewoperation and unusually difficult winter weather conditions, which haveimpacted production and shipments in the first quarter, Teck nowexpects coal sales in 2011 to be between 23.5 million and 24.5 milliontonnes. This compares with Teck's previously announced guidance for coalsales of 24.5 million to 25.5 million tonnes in 2011.The company now expects the unit-mining cost of product sold to be inthe range of $63 to $67 per tonne for the year and in the range of $77to $80 per tonne for the first quarter, due primarily to lower coalvolumes. This annual guidance does not reflect any provision for furtherlosses in production due to the Elkview labour disruption continuinginto the second quarter or other potential labour disruptions.Teck also expects annual copper sales to be in the range of 330,000 to340,000 tonnes as a result of adverse effects of unusual and heavyrainfall at the company's Quebrada Blanca operation and continued orethroughput issues at the new concentrator at the company's Carmen deAndacollo operation. Work continues to assess the extent of the orehardness issue and to optimize the mill circuit of the new plant toincrease throughput. This reduction will largely be reflected in thefirst quarter results for 2011, with total expected copper production of75,000 tonnes.As a result of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Teck hascarried out an initial review with its customers and currently expectsminimal impact to the shipment of its core commodities of copper,steelmaking coal and zinc to Japan.
SUCYN