Rio Tinto iron ore output drops in Q1

Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto posted a fall in first-quarter iron ore production on Tuesday, blaming bad weather over Western Australia.

January-March output of 66.4 million tonnes was below most forecasts and six percent, or four million tonnes, down on the last three months of 2013.

The world's second largest mining company pointed to cyclone activity, which often plagues first-quarter figures from the resource-rich Pilbara region in Western Australia.

Global iron ore shipments were also down by eight percent to 66.7 million tonnes over the same period.

"Production in the first quarter was below fourth quarter levels due to disruption caused by seasonal weather patterns," the company said.

"Heavy rainfall associated with this cyclone and other adverse weather conditions in January and February impacted across mine, rail and port operations," it said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Chief executive Sam Walsh said compared with the first quarter of 2013 Rio Tinto had "started the year with a series of performance records as we continue to drive productivity gains across our operations".

"Our Pilbara iron ore business has again set new benchmarks for production, shipments and rail volumes for the first quarter and we are well on track to reach nameplate capacity of 290 million tonnes per annum by the end of the first half of 2014," he said.

Iron ore guidance was unchanged with Rio saying it remained on track to meet full-year targets of about 295 million tonnes from Australia and Canada.

Copper production also slipped from the last quarter of 2013, down six percent to 156,500 tonnes.

Copper output was 17 percent up on the first quarter of 2013 with Walsh noting benefits from higher ore grades in Utah and a production ramp up at Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia.

Analysts welcomed Rio confirming full-year guidance and the share price gained nine cents or 0.14 percent to end at Aus$63.35.

The company staged a dramatic turnaround in 2013 to report a US$3.67 billion annual net profit after major cost-cutting that saw thousands of workers sacked and capital spending slashed.

Walsh was brought to turn around the firm, which lost US$3.03 billion in 2012 -- its first plunge into the red in 18 years -- after US$14.36 billion in writedowns.