Anglo had applied strict allocation of capital when it approved Grosvenor in December, Carroll said in an interview after announcing that Anglo’s global profit for the six months to June 30 more than halved due to weaker commodity prices and cost pressures.

“We are maintaining very disciplined and prudent approaches around capital allocation for our businesses,” she said.

“The priority is to strike the right balance between returning cash to our shareholders and investing in future development of our businesses that will return shareholder value through the cycle.

“Therefore we are prioritising capital towards commodities with attractive market dynamics as well as projects with low execution risk.

“One example of that is the Grosvenor project that will produce 5 million tonnes per annum.

“It is in our own backyard in Australia and it represents a low risk brownfield project.”

Grosvenor, which lies near Anglo’s Moranbah North mine and was approved by Queensland government last month, is currently in development.

It forms a major part of Anglo’s strategy of tripling production of metallurgical coal from its Australian assets by 2020, equivalent to a 12% compound annual growth rate, using a standard longwall and coal handling and preparation plant design model.

It will be underground longwall operation over a projected life of 26 years and to benefit from operating costs in the lower half of the cost curve.

In its first phase of development, Grosvenor will consist of a single new underground longwall mine, targeting the same well-understood Goonyella middle coal seam as Moranbah North and will process its coal through the existing Moranbah North CHPP and train loading facilities.

First development coal production will begin in 2013 and longwall mining in 2016.