For the period ended September 30, the company reported net income of $US54 million, compared to last year’s third-quarter result of $21.4 million.

That favourable result was thanks to an increase in produced coal revenue, up 28% to $666.4 million, which was driven by a 133% jump in favourably priced export shipments and metallurgical coal shipments that were up 25%.

Officials said that while 10.3 million tons output was in line with last year’s third quarter, its increased shipments and higher contracted sales prices left it with a higher average coal revenue per ton produced of $64.59, up 27%.

“We are extremely pleased to have increased production by 8 per cent in a difficult environment,” said Massey chairman and chief executive Don Blankenship, who added that the company had worked to control costs while revenue rose.

“This positive combination enabled us to more than double our operating cash margin per ton and increase adjusted EBITDA by more than 80 per cent compared to the third quarter of last year.

“We believe the year-over-year improvement is an indication of the increasing earnings power and value of our company and we expect the next several quarters to be even stronger."

The company also reported on its expansion efforts, which have picked up pace in the September quarter. Its Mammoth Coal group opened a mine while continuing construction work on another, with that operation commencing production before the end of the year.

In addition, it has installed a direct coal system to get coal from other Massey mines and subsequently prepare it for shipment, and has also completed a 12-mile belt system for Mammoth Coal product to travel from the processing plant on belts. The latter project is expected to save the company $10 million annually.

Massey's Green Valley group also opened a new mine in the third quarter, this one in the Sewell seam. It is also reviewing plans for production at its recently acquired Mountaineer No. 2 operation.

“In the 12 months since Massey announced its expansion plans, the company has opened 15 new mines and added seven new underground miner sections at existing mines,” said officials.

“The company has also deployed six new large excavators and support equipment as well as three new highwall miners at its surface operations.

“In all, Massey has expanded production at nine of its existing resource groups, started up the new Inman resource group and provided employment for nearly 900 additional miners.”

Looking ahead, Massey echoed the sentiment of many other producers – that the current economic picture and any potential recession will impact its outlook certainty.

“Massey is very well positioned, however, in terms of its balance sheet, its market position and its operating performance, to take advantage of either weak or strong coal market conditions and to increase shareholder value,” it noted.

For the year, it projected that its produced coal shipments would be approximately 41.5Mt with average produced coal realisation between $64/t and $65/t.

For 2009, it expects produced coal shipments to total 46-48Mt, including 11-13Mt of metallurgical product.