The South Africa-focused miner posted a net loss of $C5 million on the three-month period ending in November compared to a $3.5 million gain at the same period last year.

Over the first nine months of the fiscal year, the company recorded a net loss of $6.8 million versus a $1.1 million net income at Q3 2012.

In terms of production, however, run of mine output decreased 30% on the quarter compared to Q3 2012, to 246,000 tonnes.

Whereas the first nine months of FY2013 reflected a 6% increase in total coal production to 1 million tonnes.

Forbes attributed the Q3 performance dip to a four-and-a-half week strike at its Magdalena and Aviemore mines in South Africa.

The effect of the strike is most noticeable in the comparison of the mines’ productivity in the second and third quarters of the year.

Magdalena ROM production was 184,000t, a 35% decrease over Q2 2013 production of 284,000t.

Aviemore ROM production was 62,000t, a 53% decrease over Q2 2013 of 131,000t.

Magdalena has a 51.3Mt measured coal resource and production capacity of 100,000 tonnes per month of bituminous coal.

Aviemore counts a 1.6Mt measured resource and estimates coal production capacity of 25,000tpm.