James River’s coal sales revenues for the quarter were also down to $175.9 million, compared with $279.7 million for last year’s March quarter.
Despite this, chairman and chief executive officer Peter Socha remained upbeat.
"Our mining operations had an excellent quarter,” he said.
“They have substantially completed a major restructuring of all mines and support services.
“We are now beginning to see the results of this process in both coal production and costs. We are continuing to adjust our operations to changes in the markets for both thermal and met coal.”
The domestic thermal coal market appears to be benefiting from higher prices in the natural gas market, Socha said.
“We are a little more cautious on the met coal market today due to the influence of global economic factors,” he said.
“Lastly, we are continuing to evaluate a wide variety of options to improve our liquidity and strengthen our balance sheet.”
