Iron sorrows for Anglo

Minas Rio has been a thorn in the side for Anglo American. Delays and cost overruns have blighted the project and led to the institutional pressure which ultimately forced the departure of Anglo's previous chief executive Cynthia Carroll. On the plus side, Anglo did bring Minas Rio into production below the revised budget estimate and completed the initial shipment from the project in late October.

Production of iron ore, its chief metals segment, rose 14 per cent to more than 48m tonnes on the back of strong performances at its Kolomela and Sishen mines. Minas Rio added just under 700,000 tonnes at the tail-end of the year, and production in Brazil should ramp-up strongly in coming months. However, the operational improvements at the Kumba iron ore subsidiary were outweighed by a 27 per cent fall in average realised prices.

Anglo achieved production increases across the majority of its metals complex, but last year's industrial action in South Africa weighed heavily on the performance of the group's platinum subsidiary Amplats. The five-month strike reduced output of refined platinum by a fifth, while underlying cash profits halved from the previous year.

Meanwhile, the De Beers diamond subsidiary continued to sparkle. Market conditions in both China and India remained positive, although jewellery demand in the former has moderated. Prices for both rough and polished stones softened during the second half of the year, but De Beers still managed to bump-up underlying cash profits by a quarter to $7.1bn.

JPMorgan anticipates adjusted EPS of $1.21 for 2015.