PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal miner Whitehaven Coal has lowered its production targets for its Narrabri longwall operation, in New South Wales, as a result of geotechnical issues at the mine.
Whitehaven lowered the production estimate for Narrabri from the original 8-million tonnes to 8.3-million tonnes, to between 7.5-million tonnes and 7.8-million tonnes.
The miner said that despite the revised production guidance for Narrabri, targeted group saleable coal production for 2017 remained unchanged at between 21-million tonnes and 22-million tonnes.
Furthermore, the miner pointed out that metallurgical coal sales in the December quarter comprised 22% of its total sales, compared with 16% in the September quarter. Metallurgical coal sales were forecast to grow to 26% of the total group sales during the second half of the year, consistent with the target of achieving 35% of total group sales once the Maules Creek operation reached full capacity.