BHP Billiton has beaten its full year iron ore production guidance but has flagged a hit to its full year profit of up to $US650 million ($A876.31 million) due to weakness in its copper business.
The mining giant shipped 254 million tonnes of iron ore during the 2014/15 financial year, above the 250 million tonne target it announced in May.
It also expects to cut production costs at its West Australian Iron Ore project to $US16 per tonne.
But the company will take a hit of up to $650 million to its full year underlying profit due to writedowns and redundancy costs, mostly linked to its copper business.
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The impairments come on top of $US2 billion in post-tax writedowns to its US shale oil business, which were announced last week.
BHP has lifted iron ore production by 13 per cent during the year, contributing to a nine per cent increase it total group production for the year.
The company lifted petroleum production four per cent to 256 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) thanks to an increase in output from its shale business.
But copper production was flat at 1.7 million tonnes, while metallurgical coal production was up 13 per cent to 43 million tonnes.
