Xstrata increases Australian thermal coal production

Brisbane (Energy Publishing) - Xstrata’s 2009 Australian thermal coal production was 41.1Mt, a 900kt increase on the previous year with semi-soft production also increasing by 17% year-on-year to 6.2Mt.

However, the company's Australian production of coking coal decreased 7% y-o-y due to the suspension of the longwall operations at Oaky No 1 in the Queensland’s Bowen Basin and industrial action at the NSW Tahmoor mine. This was only partially offset by increased productivity at Oaky North.

Xstrata’s average received export FOB price for Australian thermal coal in 2009 was US$80.30/t, for semi-soft coking coal US$122.50/t and for coking coal US$145/t.