LONDON--Globally diversified miner Anglo American PLC (AAL.LN) has delayed rather than cancelled projects in light of the uncertain global economic outlook and has cut this year's capital expenditure plan to around $5.4 billion from $7 billion, the company's Chief Executive said Friday.
"We are sequencing investment by prioritizing capital to commodities with the most attractive market dynamics and projects with the lowest execution risks," said Cynthia Carroll in a statement.
Ms. Carroll wouldn't be drawn on which projects have contributed to the reduced capital expenditure.
"It's a matter right now of delaying...not cancelling projects altogether," she said, adding that the company isn't looking at "massive" redundancies on the project side of its business.
Ms. Carroll cited the 5 million-metric-ton-a-year Grosvenor metallurgical coal project in Australia as a good example of a project that has been prioritized due to its low execution risk and favorable market dynamics. The project is under way, with engineering work 50% complete as of July 2012 and preliminary earthwork already begun.
Anglo American has about $17 billion in approved projects, a little less than half of which are in South Africa, and a little over half of which are relatively low-cost brownfield projects.
Iron ore, a key steelmaking ingredient, accounts for about 30% of the approved project pipeline, while diamonds and coal account for 30% and 20% of the pipeline respectively, Ms. Carroll said.
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