The second shipment, some 14,300 tonnes, was made after the first 8000t was sent across the border into China in August.

Evidently this batch was not seen as an accurate take on what Guildford’s Baruun Nioyon Uul mine can produce.

“Testing of this batch of coal is due to be completed by October 30 and the company expects that testing will confirm more favourable results than the first trial batch of BNU coal, as coal has been taken direct from the mine rather than the long term mine stockpile and efficiencies of the washplant have improved,” Guildford said.

The company is targeting a profit margin of $9-14 per run of mine tonne – even when considering the impact of a Chinese coal importing tax (6%) which started this week.

Guilford said it remained confident of negotiating a profitable offtake agreement.

The mine is scheduled to produce 25,000t in December, 35,000t in January and 65,000t in February.

The BNU mine is initially targeting up to 1 million tonnes per annum of low-ash, low-sulphur hard coking coal production for the Chinese steelmaking market.