It is down considerably from the unaudited $8.6 billion operating loss for the period ended June 30 2012.

The company boosted its coal wash plant capacity by 300% to 1.8 million tonnes per annum at its flagship Minas Moatize coking coal project in Tete, Mozambique.

It produced its first low volatile premium hard coking coal and export quality thermal product from the mine.

The plant commissioning phase is said to be progressing well.

The company also increased the JORC resource at Minas Moatize 31% to 86.8Mt, with measured and indicated of 76.3Mt, from 66.4Mt measured and indicated.

Beacon Hill received a 7.7% capacity allocation on the Sena Line equivalent to 500,000tpa, which is anticipated to grow to 1.5Mtpa following the Sena Line capacity expansion.

The first Minas Moatize trains are expected to depart for the port of Beria in the fourth quarter.

The company has struck a $21 million lease agreement with Thelo Rolling Stock Leasing for the provision of five locomotives and 90 wagons for the Sena Line.

The first rolling stock is expected to roll into Minas Moatize in the fourth quarter too.

The company raised about $21 million through a placing to beef up its balance sheet, upgrade rail infrastructure including rail sidings, to start the 2B and 2C wash plant upgrades and for rail rolling stock-related general working capital purposes.

Funding discussions are also progressing with both conventional pre-export debt providers and a number of equipment providers to vendor finance the capital spend for the phase 2B and 2C expansion on a build, own, transfer basis.

Beacon Hill CEO Rowan Karstel said the company would continue to advance Minas Moatize.

“While the spot price of coking coal is lower than in previous years, low-cost producers such as Beacon Hill remain positioned to build value, particularly when considering the high-quality specifications of our product and the ongoing progress made in executing our cost-efficient logistics solution,” he said.