The result came after record-breaking results at its Central Queensland mines plus a 64% year-on-year increase to 2.34Mt of product coal output from its Illawarra underground mines in New South Wales.

The Goonyella operations in Queensland, which include the Broadmeadow underground mine that started longwall top coal caving last year, produced 2.14Mt of coal for the recent quarter.

This was a 23% gain year-on-year plus a 38% increase from the previous quarter’s results.

As for other mines of the BMA portfolio (50:50 BHP and Mitsubishi), the Blackwater operations increased coal production by 5% year-on-year to 1.78Mt in the recent quarter, the Peak Downs mine was up 3% year-on-year to 1.14Mt, the Daunia mine was up 24% year-on-year to 628,000t and the Gregory joint venture was up 74% year-on-year to 808,000t.

BMA’s Saraji mine bucked the trend with a 14% year-on-year fall to 1.02Mt. The new Caval Ridge mine also pitched in 705,000t in the September quarter – up 25% from the previous quarter when it kicked off.

The BHP Mitsui Coal operations in Queensland, comprising of the South Walker Creek and Poitrel open cut mines, produced a combined 2.2Mt of coal for the quarter which was a 7% gain from the corresponding period of 2013.

In terms of sales from the Queensland operations, coking coal sales reached 7.3Mt for the recent quarter – up 19% year-on-year, while weak coking coal sales were also up 19% year-on-year to 2.86Mt and thermal coal was 73% down year-on-year to 43t.

Over to the Illawarra mines, coking coal sales were up 49% year-on-year to 1.6Mt while thermal coal sales were 4% higher to 373t.