Carborough Downs’ output was 73,000t in 1Q14, 91% less than in 4Q13 due to the longer than expected longwall move, which began in the middle of December and did not finish until mid-March as a result of a January roof fall.

“While completing a routine longwall move over the Christmas period, Carborough Downs experienced a roof fall on January 4, which has delayed the progress of the longwall move,” a Vale spokesman told ICN.

“No employees were injured and work is underway to complete the longwall move and return to normal operations as quickly as possible.”

In 1Q14, Integra Coal output was 8.6% lower than in 4Q13, but 76.4% higher than in 1Q13. In 4Q13 the company accessed better geological sections of the mine.

Integra coal production totalled 379,000t of metallurgical and 48,000t of thermal coal.

Production from Vale’s other Australian mines was 276,000t in 1Q14, a decrease of 7.7% from the 299,000t registered in 4Q13, due to higher strip ratios.

Overall coal production for Vale was slightly higher than 1Q13 due to a ramp-up at Vale’s Moatize mine in Mozambique.

In 1Q14, Moatize produced 1.009Mt, of which 0.595Mt was met coal and 0.414Mt thermal coal.

Met and thermal coal output increased by 48.4% and 49.2%, respectively, when compared with 4Q13, due to a normalization of the supply of explosives.

The lack of availability of explosives limited its production flexibility in 4Q13 and affected the production mix, resulting in only 49% of met coal output in1 Q14.

The ramp-up of the first phase of the Moatize coal project is being temporarily restricted by the existing limitations of the logistics infrastructure – railway and port – which do not allow for total utilisation of the mine’s nominal capacity of 11Mtpa.

The start-up of the Nacala corridor project, expected by 2H14, will eliminate the logistics bottleneck, the company said.