(Reuters) -Australian diversified miner South32 (OTC: SOUHY ) on Thursday posted quarterly manganese ore production 29.9% below estimates, hit by planned maintenance and a temporary shutdown of two mines in South Africa and no output from its key Australia division.
The company’s South Africa Manganese operations produced 476,000 wet metric tons of manganese ore, down from 530,000 wmt a year before.
Its Australia Manganese division reported no production in the third quarter as the primary concentrator at the operation was paused having established stockpiles ahead of the wet season.
The world’s biggest producer of manganese ore produced 476,000 wet metric tons (wmt) of the steel-making ingredient for the three months ended March 31, down from 1.2 million wmt a year earlier.
That compared with a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of about 678,900 wmt.