The biggest non-traditional importer of coal from Australia this year has been China, triggered by a national safety regime that has seen government authorities closing down small coal mines in the country.
Macarthur said the sales from the recent quarter had set a new record for any June quarter and that the company had made its largest single shipment of pulverised coal injection coal from the Coppabella mine, weighing in at 148,500 tonnes.
The leading PCI coal producer said thermal coal sales in the quarter accounted for about 24% of total sales, with sales to non-traditional customers representing 57% of total sales.
Coppabella produced 776,600t of run-of-mine coal for the quarter, up 131% year-on-year, while Macarthur’s Moorvale mine produced 868,600t, a 63% year-on-year increase.
Saleable coal production from Coppabella reached 660,600t for the quarter, 69% up year-on-year, while Moorvale produced 712,500t, a gain of 29% year-on-year.
The jumps in output came despite wet weather disruptions in April. Macarthur said strong spot markets in the first half had led it to restart one idled excavator and associated truck fleet at Coppabella in late April.
“A number of former Macarthur Coal employees were hired on a casual basis to operate the equipment,” the company said.
“The arrangement is expected to continue for as long as the company can maintain higher levels of sales.”
At the Moorvale mine, Macarthur also restarted an excavator and associated truck fleet. The coal handling and preparation plant hit successive monthly throughput records in May and June, with 382,920t of ROM coal washed in the latter month.
Macarthur holds a positive outlook for metallurgical coal markets for the next few months as it sees an end to the destocking phase of steel mills and has received increasing shipping requests from traditional customers seeking delivery in this half of the year.
As for exploration, the company had five drill rigs operating in the June quarter, focusing on its Middlemount, Codrilla, Wilunga and North Burton projects.
Macarthur today announced increases in JORC resources for the Codrilla and Olive Downs North projects.
Olive Downs North has an extra 2.4 million tonnes in total coal resources and a 19.2Mt increase in the indicated status, taking the total resources to 127Mt, including 30.6Mt measured, 35.3Mt indicated and 61.1Mt of inferred resources.
Codrilla’s total coal resources were boosted 30% with most of the jump in the inferred category.
The project has total resources of 77.4Mt, consisting of 41.2Mt measured, 12.2Mt indicated and 24Mt of inferred resources.
In an update on its 70%-owned Middlemount project in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, Macarthur is expecting to receive a mining lease by late in the first quarter of the 2010 financial year.
The producer said it would start construction of the CHPP and mine infrastructure for the project right after the lease was granted.
Middlemount has coal reserves totalling 56.9Mt, consisting of 28.5Mt of proved and 28.4Mt of probable reserves.
The company also embarked on a capital raising program during the quarter, which brought in $190 million via institutional placements and has since raised a further $62 million from retail shareholders.
Shares in Macarthur closed down 15c to $7.57 yesterday, breaking the trend of successive gains since closing at $6.13 on July 6.
