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Wesfarmers’ board approved an expansion from 6.5 million tonnes to 8.5Mt of export coal from Curragh in November.
Overburden removal at the mine during the period was down 4.8% due to maintenance activities on three draglines.
Coal production fell 1.4% to 2.296Mt, made up of 1.75Mt of metallurgical coal which was up 2.3% and 546,000t of steaming coal which was down 11.7%.
At the Premier mine, overburden removal was 34.5% higher than the previous quarter due to favourable weather conditions and more equipment working on waste removal in line with reduced production requirements.
Production fell 14% to 690,000t with lower demand from Verve Energy as it upgraded its Muja Power Station.
At the Bengalla mine in New South Wales, Wesfarmers’ share of production (40%) was 574,000t, 2.2% down on the previous quarter due to a less productive area of the mine.
Wesfarmers is working on a feasibility study to increase run-of-mine production from 8.7Mt per annum to 10.7Mtpa.
Wesfarmers was trading steady this morning at $A30.67.
