Old King Coal is proving to be a merry old soul indeed for Canadian miners.
The $40,8-million second-quarter net income TSX-listed Western Coal Corp reported this week was almost an eighteenfold rise compared to last year.
Teck Resources posted a record C$2,5-billion revenue for the September quarter, largely thanks to fiery coal prices.
And Coalspur - the newest fuel-digger to join the Toronto bourse - is rapidly moving to finish a prefeasibility study for its Vista project in Alberta.
CEO Eugene Wusaty is touting the project as "one of the largest export coal projects in North America".
All these companies will sell their products to Asian markets - seeing as though Canada is phasing out older coal power plants and won't allow new ones unless they produce less pollution than gas plants - and China will be an important customer.
There was also another important piece of information that came out this week that could upset King Coal and his Fiddlers Three.
The International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook document made special note of the situation in China, which has been a growing buyer of coal over the past few years.
This has driven up the coal price and caused the country to build new rail tracks to open massive coal reserves in the western and northern parts of China.
In five years time, this development could vastly change the global market, the IEA says.
"Xinjiang's contribution to global coal production could be double the contribution that Ghawar - the world's largest oil field - currently makes to oil production," the World Energy Outlook predicts.
If China becomes a net exporter of coal again - and the Western economies keep spluttering along - coal miners will have much lower prices to contend with.
Edited by: Liezel Hill
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
