By Jeffrey T. Lewis

SAO PAULO--Brazilian mining giant Vale SA said Monday that iron ore production in the third quarter broke the 100 million metric ton level as output from its S11D mine in northern Brazil reached a new record.

The company produced 104.9 million metric tons in the three-month period ended in September, up from 96.8 million tons in the second quarter, while output from S11D hit 16.1 million tons in the third quarter, from 14.3 million tons in the previous period.

The company maintained its guidance for 2018 of about 390 million tons of iron ore and about 400 million tons in 2019, and said production at S11D this year will be towards the higher end of its 50 million-55 million ton guidance.

The company is working to increase the value of the iron ore it sells, to take advantage of the premium pricing for those products. The increase in production at S11D is helping with that effort, and sales of premium products made up 79% of total sales in the third quarter, from 77% in the second.

The company's output of iron-ore pellets, a higher-quality product, reached 13.9 million tons in the third quarter, up 8.1% from the previous three months as production at its Tubarao I and II pellet plants continues to increase, Vale said.

Vale's production of several other metals declined in the third quarter from the second. Output of copper fell 3.5% in the period to 94,500 metric tons, and production of nickel declined 15.9% in the period to 55,700 tons. Cobalt production fell 21% in the third quarter from the second to 1.03 million metric tons.

Production of manganese ore increased 14.5% in the period, to 482,000 metric tons.

Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 15, 2018 10:13 ET (14:13 GMT)