Anglo American plc announced record quarterly volumes for metallurgical coal and Colombian thermal coal and said the handling of South Africa’s controversial Section 54 mine stoppages had improved.

In results for the June quarter, Anglo said metallurgical coal production had risen 23% YoY to 4.8 MT and was 29% higher than the March quarter when rains hampered output at mines across Australia’s Queensland state. Thermal coal production was up 3% YoY at a total 17.2 MT with a record 22% rise at the company’s Cerrejón operations in Colombia.

Anglo said that handling of the production impact at its South African platinum operations of legally mandated safety stoppages under Section 54 of the country’s mining code had improved significantly over the past quarter. Although Platinum experienced 22 safety stoppages at own mining operations during the last quarter, compared with 12 in the June quarter 2011 and 17 in the March quarter this year, the scope and the duration of the safety stoppages improved significantly.

The company said that the safety stoppages were more localised and were addressed over shorter periods than in 2011. As a result, 9,800 ounces of platinum were lost due to safety stoppages in the June quarter compared with 22,000 ounces in same quarter last year.

The company attributed the change to improved cooperation between its management workforce and South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources. Total output of refined platinum fell by 3%, which the company attributed to delayed plant start ups following maintenance.

Source - Mining Journal.com

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