The company reported sales of 167,500 tons for the period ended June 30, which was also 12% higher than the first quarter.

For the first six months of the year, CanAm’s sales were 317,000, up 28% from its previous sales performance of 248,000t.

“The prior year's result reflects sales from the company's old mines, which had lower productive capacity compared to the company's new mine complement,” the company said.

“This explains the large sales increase.”

Operations also went well for the miner during the June quarter, as crews made significant progress to its goal of full production at CanAm’s three new mines Old Union 2, Knight and Posey Mill 2.

All three pits at Old Union 2 had a full quarter of production, while the Knight operation’s production was at commercial levels by the end of June. At Posey Mill 2, CanAm took first coal in June and is expecting full production levels by the third quarter.

The miner’s Powhatan operation also had a solid quarter, meeting planned production goals.

June sales totaled 61,000t, and CanAm feels the performance is an indicator of future results.

Once Posey 2 reaches prime production levels, those levels should be exceeded, it said.

“Despite the fact we were still in a transition phase for most of the second quarter, CanAm was still able to achieve the best production and sales results in its history,” president Jos De Smedt said.

“Now that our transition has been completed, we can expect to achieve full scale commercial production for the foreseeable future. Add to this the fact we are fully contracted gives us optimism as we start the second half of the year.”