The Integra Coal mine in New South Wales was placed in care and maintenance in 2Q14. The open cut production continued throughout 3Q14 in a reduced capacity until coal production ceased.
The Isaac Plains mine in Queensland was also placed in care and maintenance in 3Q14. The open cut production continued throughout 4Q14, until coal production ceased.
Production at Vale’s Carborough Downs longwall mine in Queensland was 730,000t in 3Q15, the highest production for a third quarter, 17.8% higher than in 3Q14 but 1.6% lower than in 2Q15.
Production at Vale’s Moatize mine in Mozambique was 1.3Mt in 3Q15, 52,000t higher than in 2Q15 despite two weeks of plant shutdown in July 2015.
September production reached 0.537Mt, driven by performance improvements in the Coal Handling Processing Plant (CHPP).
Production of metallurgical coal in Moatize reached 0.914 Mt.
The ramp-up of the first phase of the Moatize coal project is currently restricted by the logistics infrastructure – railway and port – which do not allow for the total utilization of the mine’s nominal capacity of 11Mtpa, according to Vale.
The greenfield sections of the railway are completed and the main brownfield section of the railway reaching 86% physical completion. Vale expects railway construction to be over by December.
The Nacala Logistics Corridor (NLC) has transported 2,760 wagons and discharged 150 kt of coal at the port.
The Port stacker that collapsed at the Nacala port on July 19th should be commissioned in April 2016, not impacting the port´s ramp up curve.
With the ramp-up of the NCL, the logistics bottleneck will be gradually eliminated, according to Vale.
