Anglo American’s metallurgical coal production down by 14%
Export metallurgical coal production decreased by 14% to 3.3 million tonnes, due to the continued suspension of operations at Grosvenor following the underground gas incident in May 2020.
The re-entry process is now underway with inspections ongoing to ensure the safety and integrity of the mine before work will commence to prepare for restart later in H2 2021. Open cut operations have been scaled back at Dawson and Capcoal since mid-2020 in response to reduced demand for lower quality metallurgical coal.
Production at Moranbah North has been suspended since 21 February 2021 in response to elevated gas levels. Re-entry is expected in late April after re-instating ventilation following water ingress that occurred while the workforce was withdrawn from the operation and approval from the Inspectorate. Operations are expected to resume in early May.
The ratio of hard coking coal production to PCI/semi-soft coking coal was 77:23, lower than in Q1 2020 (79:21), due to a lower proportion of product coming from the underground operations.
The average realised price for hard coking coal was $113/tonne, which was lower than the benchmark price of $127/tonne as sales consisted of a lower proportion of premium quality hard coking coal from Moranbah North and Grosvenor.
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Production guidance for metallurgical coal is revised to 14-16 million tonnes (previously 18-20 million tonnes), impacted by the suspension at Moranbah North as well as geotechnical conditions and delayed access to Grosvenor, subject to the extent of any Covid-19-related disruption.
