BHP iron ore yield breaks records

The world's number one mining company, BHP Billiton, reported record half-year production from its Western Australia iron ore division. The block's iron ore production rose 4% year-on-year to 117.6 million tonnes in the six months to end December.

Over the last quarter, production was 60 million tonnes, ahead of market expectations. BHP is on track for a full year production of 265m-275mt.

Coking coal production improved to 21 million tonnes in six months thanks to strong production at four of the Queensland mines. For the year BHP expects to produce 44 million tonnes of coal met.

Copper production fell 7% in the half-year due to a power outage at Australian Olympic Dam operations in September-October. BHP reduced the volume for the full year to 1.62m tonnes, but retained its plans for Escondida, the world's largest copper mine.