Queensland mines produced a total of 12.515 million tonnes during October 2003, down on the 13.177Mt produced a year ago. Of this a total of 12.008Mt was exported. Coking coal exports for the month totalled 7.479Mt compared with 5.963Mt a year ago. Thermal coal exports were up to 4.528Mt, from 3.365Mt in 2002.
Year to date figures (January – October) show a rise on last year’s output of 126.271Mt to 130.256Mt for January to October 2003.
Of the total output for the month of October underground mines produced 1.839Mt and open-cut operations 10.676Mt. Underground output dropped compared with 2.494Mt produced in October 2002. Underground output for the year to date also dropped to 21.189Mt, from 24.030Mt in the period January to October 2002.
The bulk of the export tonnage (4.397Mt) passed through the port of Gladstone. Dalrymple Bay handled 3.730Mt, Hay Point 2.738Mt and Abbot Point 880,000t. A small amount passed through the Port of Brisbane.
The largest purchaser of Queensland coal was Japan which accounted for 4.497Mt of the total amount exported, up on last October’s 3.200Mt. Korea came a distant second, purchasing 1.491Mt of Queensland coal in October, followed by India which took 1.119Mt.
