Mining giant BHP Billiton saw its thermal coal production rise 9% year on year and 12% from the October-December period to 7.42 million mt over January-March, the company said Wednesday in its quarterly results.
The result led to the miner leaving its fiscal 2016-2017 (July-June) production guidance for thermal coal unchanged at 30 million mt, it said.
For the first nine months of the fiscal year, BHP's thermal coal production is broadly unchanged year on year at 21 million mt, it said.
"Truck utilization at New South Wales Energy Coal improved, however production declined 5% as higher drawdown of inventories benefited the March 2016 period. This was offset by a 9% increase in volumes at Cerrejon compared to the nine months ended March 2016 which was constrained by drought conditions," it said.
In Australia, its NSW thermal coal mines -- which it holds a 100% interest in -- produced 4.66 million mt in January-March, which compares to 4.19 million mt a year earlier and 3.85 million mt in October-December, it said.
Its 33.3% share of production for its Cerrejon mine in Colombia was 2.76 million mt in the March quarter, up from 2.61 million mt in the same quarter of 2016, and down from 2.80 million mt in the December quarter, it said.
