PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal miner Stanmore Coal has increased its production guidance for the 2019 financial year from 1.8-million tonnes to 2-million tonnes, after securing additional long-term port capacity.
The company said that the additional long-term port capacity provided Stanmore with the ability to consider a number of options to fill the coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP) to its nameplate capacity of 3.5-million tonnes run-of-mine coal a year.
The company earlier this week reported an annual run rate of 2.7-million at its Isaac Plains Complex, with the start of production from the Isaac Plains East operation.
Stanmore said on Friday that the reserves and resources at the Isaac Plains Complex was sufficient to allow the company to ramp-up production to match the capacity of installed infrastructure, while Stanmore’s tenure across two separate take-or-pay contracts of five and ten years, gave it the flexibility to manage exposure to long-term obligations, including those matched to its lowest cost production unit, the dragline.
Free-on-board costs for the financial year are expected to reach A$86/t, excluding state royalties.