JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Industrial action impacted on JSE-listed Optimum Coal’s first-quarter production performance, with output declining by 11%.

Optimum Coal, which Glencore and local businessperson Cyril Ramaphosa want to buy, produced 3.755-million tons of run-of-mine (ROM) for the three months ended September 30, down from the fourth-quarter output of 4.175-million ROM tons.

CEO Mike Teke described the performance as “disappointing” and explained that the lost production time at Optimum Collieries and Koornfontein Mines was from July 24 to August 3.

More recently, production at Optimum Collieries has further been impacted by the current industrial action, which started on October 3, and remains unresolved, affecting Coalcor Mining, the Boschmanspoort underground mining contractor.

But, Teke said Koornfontein continues to perform steadily and has met all requisite production targets during the quarter under review.

“Our immediate focus is to address the wage-and contractor-related issues at our Boschmanspoort underground mine and to ensure the successful relocation of draglines to the critical Kwagga North opencast extension area.”

The miner said Transnet Freight Rail’s railings performance to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal has shown a “material improvement” in recent weeks, which has enabled the significant reduction in on-mine export stocks.

During the quarter under review, 1.46-million tons of export/high quality domestic coal was produced and 1.51-million tons of lower quality domestic coal was produced for Eskom.

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