The company has two mining operations, Stratford and Duralie, both located in the Gloucester Basin in NSW.

 

Gloucester also holds two coal exploration licences which cover a large proportion of the basin and include a number of known coal deposits.

 

The company’s operations produced 671,000t of coal during the quarter, with the Stratford preparation plant producing 456,000t of product coal – on track to produce more than 2Mt for the full year.

 

Gloucester posted total coal sales of 584,000t for the quarter, up from 404,000t in the corresponding quarter 2006, reflecting the current strength of the international coal market.

 

During the quarter, the company spent $462,000 on exploration and resource evaluation, contributing to an additional 50Mt of coal resources being defined within Gloucester’s exploration and mining tenements.

 

Gloucester chairman Andy Hogendijk said the additional resources will be used to increase the production capacity of the company’s operations and contribute to extending the life of mine operations.

 

Meanwhile, Gloucester Coal shareholders will meet to consider and decide on Xstrata’s $A391 million takeover offer in mid-July.

 

“The board believes the Xstrata offer sufficiently recognises the potential future growth of coal mining operations in the Gloucester Basin … the Xstrata offer represents an excellent outcome for the Gloucester Coal shareholders,” Hogendijk said.