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Mining giant Anglo American more than halved its interim dividend after reporting a slump in profit as coronavirus-led disruptions hurt production.
For the six months ended 30 June, profit, defined as underlying earnings, fell by 67% to $0.8bn on-year and underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) declined 39% to $3.35bn.
'The pandemic did materially impact production, with varying degrees of lockdown being the main driver for our 11% overall reduction in output and 16% decrease in revenue, alongside operational incidents at PGMs and Met Coal,' the company said.
De Beers' rough diamond production decreased by 27% to 11.3m carats, primarily as a result of the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns on production at the company's southern African operations.
The company cut its interim dividend to 28 cents a share, down from 62 cents a year earlier.
Looking ahead, the company said it still expected first production at the Quellaveco copper project in Peru in 2022, despite disruption caused by the national quarantine.
'As the global economy recovers, platinum-group metals, copper and iron ore are all particularly well positioned, while De Beers, as the world's leading diamond business, is taking all appropriate steps to address the effects of acute disruption,' it added.
At 8:07am: (LON:AAL) Anglo American PLC share price was -22.2p at 1951.6p