Reuters reported that Belgium's Nyrstar SA expects its mining output to pick up in the H2 of the year after deliveries in the first 6 months from its sites in east Tennessee and Talvivaara, Finland fell short of expectations.

Shares in the group declined as much as 5.1%, their lowest level in over a week after it said zinc in concentrate production from its mining operations was 79,000 tonnes in the H1 of 2011 below its forecast of 95,000 tonnes. It also proved more expensive to mine with the underlying core profit of the mining division falling to EUR 324 per tonne from 338 in the H2 of 2010.

Greg McMillan COO of Nyrstar said that “Results conference call that production increases at new mines were not linear and that the group maintained its full year in concentrate production forecast of 215,000 tonnes. Although there have been a few issues in the H1 we're on top of that and expect a better performance in the H2.”

Mr Bernard Hanssens analyst at Bank Degroof said that "It's not abnormal that if you start a mine you have problems. It could happen for other mines, but it's a temporary issue not a fundamental issue."

(Sourced from Reuters)