Xstrata's thermal coal down, but coking up

Reported by AAP
Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata has attributed a dip in Australian thermal coal production in 2010 to the Queensland floods and the planned closure of a mine in NSW.
Xstrata, the world's largest exporter of thermal coal, which is used to generate steam for electricity, produced 37.8 million tonnes (Mt) of the commodity in Australia in calendar 2010, down from 41.1 Mt in 2009.

"Australian thermal coal production for 2010, including semi-soft, was 2.9 million tonnes, or six per cent, below 2009 production," Xstrata said late on Tuesday.
The output fall was primarily due to the planned closure of the United underground colliery in NSW and the impact of severe weather during the first quarter and in December on the Queensland open-cut operations.
However, volumes of coking coal - used in blast furnaces in the production of iron - from Xstrata's Australian mines rose substantially to 7.7 Mt, from 6.4 Mt previously.
"Australian coking coal volumes increased by 20 per cent, or 1.3 million tonnes, as a result of a full year of production from Oaky number one (in Queensland) and high productivity from Oaky North," Xstrata said.
That increase would have been greater if not for industrial action at the Tahmoor mine in NSW in the second half of the year, when workers led by the Construction Forestry, Mining and Energy Union went on strike, calling for wage increases.
The company also announced it had completed construction of a magnetite base plant at Ernest Henry mine, in central Queensland, as part of a $589 million undertaking to transform the project into a major underground copper-gold operation.
The plant had produced its first magnetite iron ore concentrate, an important by-product of the copper-gold concentrating process, Xstrata said.

Magnetite output is expected to be at a rate of about 1.2 Mt per annum, with exports expected to start from Townsville port in the first half of this year.
Ernest HenryMining general manager Myles Johnston said the plant would play a major role in extending the life of the project to at least 2024.
"The transformation of open pit mining operations to a major shaft underground mine is on budget with the shaft scheduled to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2013," Mr Johnston said.
Xstrata mined 74,595 tonnes of copper at Ernest Henry in 2010, up from 35,562 tonnes previously.
The mine also yielded 91,259 tonnes of gold, up from 45,227 in 2009.
Xstrata said a four per cent lift in its total global gold production in 2010 was due to a strong recovery in gold production at Ernest Henry.
Xstrata has activated preliminary emergency procedures as powerful Cyclone Yasi hits Queensland, with nickel production suspended from the 30,000 tonnes per year Yabulu nickel refinery.