Rio Tinto reported Wednesday a 6% year-on-year rise in hard coking coal production to 2 million mt in the April-June quarter. This was also up 8% from the January-March quarter, the company said in its Q2 2014 production report.
Production of hard coking coal for the first half of 2014 was 3.9 million mt, a rise of 9% from first half 2013.
From its Australian operations -- which includes the Kestrel and Hail Creek mines -- it produced 1.8 million mt of hard coking coal over April-June, which was up 4% year on year and 8% higher quarter on quarter.
In the first half of 2014, Rio Tinto's Australian mines produced a total of 3.6 million mt of hard coking coal, up 10% from a year earlier, it said.
Rio Tinto's production of semi-soft coking coal from Australia, however, declined by 21% year on year in the April-June quarter to 903,000 mt. The output was also down 4% from the previous quarter. The decline was the result of changes in the production mix to maximize higher margin thermal coal output, the company said.
In H1 2014, Rio Tinto's semi-soft coking coal production was 1.8 million mt, down 16% from a year earlier.
Thermal coal production from Australia in the April-June quarter was 5.5 million mt, 5% lower year on year and down 4% from the previous quarter. In H1 2014, thermal coal production was 11.3 million mt, up 6% year on year.
Rio Tinto's full year production guidance for 2014 for hard coking coal has been revised down to 7.4 million mt from 8.2 million mt previously, due to lower production than expected from the Kestrel mine.
The production guidance for semi-soft coking coal remains unchanged at 3 million mt while Rio's thermal coal production in 2014 is expected to be 17.5 million mt, up from 16.7 million mt announced previously.
Rio Tinto produced 187,000 mt of hard coking coal and 176,000 mt of thermal coal from its Mozambique mine over April-June, which was 31% and 34% higher, respectively, from a year earlier.
Over first half 2014, the mine produced 246,000 mt of hard coking coal and 230,000 mt of thermal coal, down 3% and 4%, respectively, from H1 2013, due to rail and port issues, Rio Tinto said.
