SYDNEY (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto slightly raised its production guidance for iron ore after posting a 39 percent jump in first-quarter output on Thursday, driven by Chinese demand and recovery in the West.
Rio Tinto said it expected to produce about 234 million metric tons of the steel-making commodity this year from mines in Australia and Canada, including mining partners' interests, a slight upgrade from previous guidance of 230 million metric tons.
"In the first quarter, most of our operations continued to run at capacity," Rio Tinto Chief Executive Tom Albanese said in the company's production report.
"Chinese demand grew strongly and we saw some recovery in OECD markets, but we are still cautious about short-term volatility," Albanese said.
Close peer BHP Billiton
Some analysts may have been expecting even stronger production from Rio Tinto on Thursday.
"At first glance the key iron ore production output figure ... may be a touch shy of some analysts' expectations," said Ben Potter, market strategist with brokerage IG Markets.
Rio Tinto's aluminum production fell 1 percent in the quarter from a year earlier.
Spot iron ore prices <.I062-CNI=SI> rose 9 percent in the quarter, aluminum 4 percent and copper 6 percent, with forecasters seeing more price rises in the second quarter.
Rio Tinto is the world's largest aluminum producer and the second biggest iron ore miner after Brail's Vale
It also operates the Kennecott copper mining and smelting complex in the United States and holds a 30 percent stake in Chile's Escondida copper mine.
Its share of Escondida's mined copper output fell 7 percent in the first quarter, while refined copper production dropped 20 percent, mainly due to some safety-related downtime.
It also said its share of copper from the Grasberg mine, run by Freeport McMoran
(Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Mark Bendeich)
