(Updates with details and background from paragraph 2 onwards) Oct 21 (Reuters) – Australia's South32 on Tuesday logged a 135% jump in its first-quarter manganese output, supported by a recovery in its operations following the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Megan. The diversified miner said it had successfully executed the operational recovery plan at its Australia operations and ramped up export shipments after the tropical cyclone damaged infrastructure last year. The domestic manganese division produced 854,000 wet metric tons (wmt) during the first quarter, boosting the company's total quarterly production to 1.4 million wmt. South32's total production for the three months ended September 30 beat Visible Alpha's estimate of 1.23 million wmt and was significantly higher than the 597,000 wmt produced a year earlier. Its South Africa manganese operations produced 551,000 wmt in the first quarter, lower than the prior year's production. Meanwhile, the threat of closure of the Mozambique aluminium smelter continues to hang over the company, which said negotiations to secure affordable power have not progressed. (Reporting by Sneha Kumar and Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)
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