PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Record production has seen coal miner Yancoal nearly double its revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the year ended December, compared with the previous corresponding period.

Revenue from operations in the full year reached A$4.85-billion, compared with the A$2.6-billion reported in 2017, while operating Ebitda increased from A$998-million to A$2.1-billion.

Profit after tax jumped from A$229-million to A$852-million.

The results were achieved as Yancoal’s attributable run-of-mine production for the year nearly doubled from the 24.4-million tonnes achieved in 2017, to 42.9-million tonnes, while saleable coal production was up from 18.5-million tonnes to 32.9-million tonnes.

“2018 has been a year of extraordinary growth and success, with a record dividend declared, debt reduced by more than half a billion dollars, and Yancoal Australia listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong,” said chairperson Baocai Zhang.

“Our exceptional full year financial results have also provided Yancoal with the cash required to begin 2019 by immediately reducing our debt liabilities by a further $500-million. To have prepaid $1.4-billion of debt in less than a year-and-a-half since our acquisition of Coal & Allied is a stunning achievement.”

Yancoal CEO Reinhold Schmidt said on Tuesday that the financial turnaround demonstrated the robustness of the company’s operational, investment and cashflow management strategies.

“We are exceeding expectations and continue to forge our own path as a leader within the competitive global coal market.

“In the year ahead, we will invest in new fleets and operational efficiencies across our opencut mines, and progress our pipeline of Australian brownfield projects, with a specific focus on the Mount Thorley Warkworth and Moolarben operations.”

Schmidt noted that with three of the most successful low-cost, high-quality producing tier-one assets in Australia, Yancoal was aggressively pursuing new organic growth opportunities to sustain the profitable return of Yancoal.

The miner would spend some A$285-million in capital during 2019.

For the 2019 financial year, Yancoal is targeting an attributable production of some 35-million tonnes of saleable coal.