Antofagasta's copper production rose to 179,800 tonnes in the third quarter and 515,800 tonnes for the first nine months - up 3.8% and 11.5% respectively on a year ago.

The company says this was mainly due to higher production at Esperanza as a result of steadily increasing throughput levels following the start of operations in 2011. Copper production for the 2012 full year is still expected to be approximately 700,000 tonnes.

Gold production rose to 213,500 ounces in the first nine months - up from 125,000 ounces a year ago and also reflecting the higher throughput at Esperanza.

Molybdenum production at Los Pelambres was 3,000 tonnes in the third quarter 2012 and 9,500 tonnes in the first nine months of 2012.

The 30.1% increase in production in the first nine months of 2012 compared to 2011 reflects the particularly high molybdenum grades in the current year. Group cash costs (net of by-product credits) in the third quarter were 99.3 cents per pound, in line with the previous quarter's costs.

Cash costs excluding by-product credits decreased slightly to 157.1 cents per pound in third quarter 2012 compared with 158.2 cents in the previous quarter.