Production difficulties at the NSW mine from September 2002 to February 2003 severely impacted on the company’s profitability. Coal revenue was down because production difficulties reduced output by 300,000 tonnes to 1.2 million tones. Shipping constraints delayed 100,000t of sales into the 2003-04 financial year.
Managing director, Harry Adams, said “The result for the year is most disappointing and represents what can only be described as an unsatisfactory result. However, a number of changes have now been implemented at both Southland and Gympie Eldorado.”
Since February, a new operating regime at Southland has improved coal production and reduced the possibility of similar production difficulties occurring again.
The operation has already produced over 200,000 run-of-mine tonnes for the month of August 2003.
The company said mining of longwall panel SL3 will be completed in September and the existing longwall unit will be upgraded during the six-week transition to panel SL4.
Coal sales will continue during this transition as coal stockpiles have been built up to more than 200,000 tonnes. Southland’s forecast 2003-04 financial-year production is 1.8 to 2.2Mt.
