Coal stocks during the period increased by 600,000t, the company reported.
Deep mine production was 5.9Mt benefiting from improved performances at Daw Mill, Rossington, Thoresby and the Ellington mine.
UK Coal said the new longwall face at Daw Mill colliery began production in April and the company is now building to full production in a 5 metre section of the Warwickshire thick coal seam.
"The initial start up on face has been successful with outputs around 14,000 tonnes per week," UK Coal said. "The new program to ramp up production is now ongoing and will take several weeks due to the complexity of the new systems.
"Full production rates should be achievable by July."
UK Coal said redundancy costs associated with the closure of the Prince of Wales colliery would be included in the interim results. Redundancy costs to date were about STG3 million.
The company said it would announce the results of its Selby complex review in June.
UK Coal said first half sales in 2002 were constrained by customer overhang, but new sales were expected in the second half of the year due to displacing imports.
"Coal consumption indicators for the early months of 2002 show that coal burn is holding up better than market forecasts and steal coal import levels have reduced by 23% compared to the same period last year," UK Coal said.
