The relative outperformance of the company’s Illawarra operations compared to the Queensland met coal business is waning as the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance in Queensland beds down productivity increases and moves away from the destructive industrial action over enterprise bargaining and the effect of the floods.
Total production from Illawarra Coal year to date is 5.2 million tonnes compared to the 6.1Mt for the previous corresponding period.
This compares with BMA which produced 21.6Mt year to date and 15.9Mt for the previous corresponding period. BHP Mitsui Coal, which includes the South Walker Creek and Poitrel mines, reported production of 27Mt year to date,
compared to the 21.1Mt for the previous corresponding period.
For the three months to December 2013, Illawarra Coal’s production was 1.9Mt, after a horror September quarter in which production fell down to 1.4Mt due to a scheduled longwall move at West Cliff and an extended outage at Dendrobium.
BHP Billiton’s $845 million investment in Appin Area 9 in NSW – which maintains Illawarra Coal’s production capacity with a replacement mining domain and capacity to produce 3.5Mtpa of metallurgical coal – is on track for completion in 2016.
Earlier this month BHP announced it would be axing 36 jobs at Illawarra Coal.
BHP Billiton said its Illawarra Coal division continued to undertake an organisational review in response to the company’s ongoing focus to ensure competitiveness and viability of the business.
Illawarra Coal asset president Troy McDonald said the company had advised employees and contractors about the review and the impact on some roles in the business.
“We will work closely with those who will be affected and provide the appropriate support services,” he said.
“These workforce changes are essential to secure the future competitiveness of our business and will ensure we have the right number of people doing the right work to support our operations.”
Initially, there will be 36 employee and contractor roles affected.
The next phase of the review will involve the operational activities and the full review will be completed by June 30, 2014.
