Coal sales were up by 41.8%, reflecting heavy shipping schedules from all Excel mines.

The New South Wales producer continued to reap the rewards of a widened longwall face and drift conveyor upgrade at Metropolitan, the longwall producing 495,000 tonnes ROM during the quarter, up 10.4% on last year.

The Wambo opencut took delivery of new equipment during the quarter, with three new Komatsu 930E haul trucks now assembled and three more trucks due to arrive mid-November. A new Komatsu EX 5500 excavator is due in February.

Earthwork delays associated with the construction of the Wambo rail spur and loop were experienced during the quarter. Full commissioning is expected by the end of March. Excel said any rail construction delays would not affect Wambo’s coal sales.

The Wambo opencut produced 1.2Mt ROM coal during the quarter, up almost 7% on last year.

The company said mining equipment had been ordered and labour sourced for the North Wambo underground mine, with development due to commence on schedule in mid-November.

Roche Mining commissioned the Millennium mining fleet on schedule during the quarter and commenced overburden removal in October at the NSW development.

Excel was positive on impending price negotiations for the next contract year, set to start late November, noting that current coking coal contracts for quarter one were about double those of financial year 2005.

While demand for export thermal coal remains strong, the spot price fell sharply during the first quarter and is currently about $US40 per tonne. However, Excel said spot markets were thinly traded and it remained to be seen how contract price negotiations would develop.

Excel closed up 2.8% yesterday at $A6.95.