Diversified major Anglo American has revised its coal production guidance for the year to account for the impact of a recent fire at the Grosvenor underground mine, in Australia.
Owing to the incident, Anglo has lowered its steelmaking coal guidance to between 14-million and 15.5-million tonnes, from its previously-guided 15-million to 17-million tonnes.
The fire, which occurred at the end of June, necessitated the suspension of production at Grosvenor. According to a statement released by Anglo on Thursday, efforts are under way to stabilise the mine and reinstate comprehensive underground gas monitoring. The process is expected to take several months owing to potential damage underground.
Meanwhile, Anglo’s other steelmaking coal operations, slated for divestment as part of the company’s restructuring, continue to operate without disruption.
CEO Duncan Wanblad affirmed that Anglo was “working at pace” to execute on the asset divestments, including steelmaking coal mines.
In the second quarter, Anglo reported a 26% increase in steelmaking coal production to 4.2-million tonnes. This rise was driven by heightened output at the Grosvenor underground longwall operation, following a longwall move in the second quarter of 2023.
Increased production at the Dawson opencut operation was more than offset by lower production at the Aquila longwall operation, owing to ongoing difficult strata conditions, as well as at the Capcoal opencut operation owing to mine sequencing, with more waste tonnes extracted. The Moranbah longwall operation was broadly flat owing to ongoing challenges with difficult strata conditions.
First half unit cost is expected to be $125/t, which is higher than the $115/t full-year unit cost guidance prior to the Grosvenor incident, owing to lower-than-expected production from the higher fixed cost underground operations at Moranbah and Aquila.
Anglo updated its cost guidance to between $130/t and $140/t, from the previous guidance of $115/t.