Atlantic Coal is expecting to increase production substantially this year once the latest excavator becomes operational at the Stockton Colliery, its opencast anthracite operation in Pennsylvania.
The statement was included in the group’s production report for 2011. Run of mine coal production rose to 208,730 tonnes from 203.060 tonnes in 2010, while it removed 3,257,776 bank cubic yards of overburden, compared with 2,837,863 bcy the previous year.
Atlantic produced 105,403 tonnes of clean coal in the year, up from 88,620 tonnes in 2010. It sold 106,403 tonnes in the period at an average price of USD 142.33 per tonne compared with sales of 97,349 tonnes at an average price of USD 124.43 each the previous year.
As announced last year, the company ceased operating its DeMag H185 excavator in September after a long run of mechanical problems. It acquired a Komatsu PC2000 hydraulic excavator in October 2011.
Since becoming operational, this has already had a positive effect on production which the board anticipates will be further enhanced when the second Liebherr 9250 19 yard bucket hydraulic excavator becomes operational, scheduled to be in the first quarter this year.
Whilst the construction of the railroad diversion was completed in the third quarter 2011 on schedule, certain delays have occurred in the negotiations with operators regarding commissioning.
These delays are reflected in a higher ratio of coal to overburden than Atlantic's mine plan had originally forecast. However, Atlantic is confident that these discussions will progress positively and will update shareholders at the appropriate time.
Mr Steve Best MD of Atlantic said that "Whilst we had anticipated higher production figures from Stockton for 2011, we remain confident that, with the Komatsu already operational and a second Liebherr becoming operational in Q1 2012, we will see increased production for 2012 and indeed, both initial production and sales price figures for January 2012 look to be a large improvement on those achieved in January 2011.”
(Sourced from www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk)
