Sustaining and expansionary capex was previously set to be $US7.9 billion ($A10.2 billion), but Glencore has revised down the figure to $6.5-6.8 billion.

The company said further details would be provided at its full-year results presentation next month.

Glencore also announced plans to divest its 23.9% stake in South African platinum producer Lonmin, which it inherited through the 2013 takeover of Xstrata.

The divestment will be via an in-specie distribution to Glencore shareholders, currently representing around 3c per share.

Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg said it had always regarded the stake in Lonmin as non-core.

“As we do not trade platinum and have no special insight into the market, we believe that it is better to leave to our shareholders the decision as to how to manage the Lonmin shares,” he said.

“Our desire to distribute the Lonmin shares therefore reflects our philosophy not a view on Lonmin or platinum.

“Our senior management team do not currently plan to sell the Lonmin shares they would receive from the distribution in specie.”

Lonmin said it welcomed the supportive statements from Glasenberg and viewed the proposal as a constructive way forward.

Glencore’s two directors on the Lonmin board will step down.

The company will seek shareholder approval for the distribution at its annual general meeting in May.

Glencore also released its full-year production results yesterday, showing a 4% increase in copper production to 1.5 million tonnes.

Zinc production fell 1% to almost 1.4Mt, while nickel output of 101,000 tonnes was up 3%.

Coal production rose 6% to 146.3Mt, while ferrochrome output increased by 5% to nearly 1.3Mt.