The JCB reported a full year production figure for Australia's 34 longwall mines of 84.12 million tonnes raw coal (including development tonnage) for the year ended June 2001.
This was just over 4 million tonnes up (roughly 5%) on the 79.95Mt produced in the previous financial year. The figure is also slightly up on the 82.2Mt produced for the 12 months ended December 2000.
For the full year production figures see the related table. For June 2001 quarter see the related table.
The top five producers, (four in Queensland), were MIM's Oaky North mine, Anglo's Moranbah North, BHP Billiton's Crinum, Rio Tinto's Kestrel mine, and Enex Resources' South Bulga, the only NSW-located mine.
For the first time ever two mines broke the 5Mt mark and set new individual mine records - MIM's Oaky North operation, which produced 5.57Mt (5.16Mt longwall coal), a stunning 124% improvement on its production last fiscal year of 2.4Mt. Anglo's Moranbah North mine produced 5.15 Mt (4.72Mt longwall coal).
While MIM's Newlands mine still holds the Australian record at 5.7Mt, the Queensland mine was only able to produce 3.7Mt (3.4Mt longwall coal) this fiscal year.
Crinum's production, just short of the 5Mt mark at 4.94Mt, was a 9% improvement on last year. Kestrel continues to improve with a creditable 4.3Mt, up 8%.
Three of the five Enex longwall mines – Baal Bone, Ulan and West Wallsend – are showing evidence of the group's focus on improved productivity (see related article on the Enex IPO).
Teralba stopped production in May. Baal Bone improved by over 100% to 3.1Mt (2.9Mt longwall coal), also a record for the mine. Ulan, which Enex bought this year, has improved by 32% to 3.9Mt (3.6Mt longwall), while West Wallsend improved by 22% with a ROM production of 3.4Mt (3Mt longwall).
Production at Enex's Cumnock and South Bulga operations dropped off marginally to 2.0Mt and 4.2Mt respectively. The latter was, however, the fifth highest producer for the period. This means that of Enex's five longwall operations, one is in the 4-5Mtpa range, while three are in the 3-4Mtpa range.
Other mines in the 3-4Mt per annum range (eight in total, five of which were NSW mines), were MIM's Oaky Creek (3.8Mt ROM) and Newlands mines, Anglo's Dartbrook (3.4Mt ROM) and German Creek Southern (3Mt) mines, and Wambo (3Mt).
Enex managed longwall tonnage for the 2001 fiscal year of 17.3Mt ROM, roughly 20% of total longwall production. BHP Billiton produced 8.3Mt from the five longwall mines in the Illawarra district, and a total of 13.3Mt, including Crinum, but excluding Moonee mine production. MIM's three longwall mines produced 13.2 Mt for the year.
