Coal production for the quarter was 2.9 million tonnes, which was made up of 2.1Mt of metallurgical coal and 826,00t of steaming coal. This was 61.4% higher than the previous quarter.

Metallurgical coal production was 79.6% higher than the previous quarter and steaming coal production up 27.9% on the previous quarter.

“The increase in coal production reflected the impact of significant rainfall on mine operations in the previous quarter,” the company said in its latest results announcement.

For the 12 months to June 30, metallurgical coal production at Bengalla decreased by 19.3% to 7.3Mt and steaming coal production increased by 2.4% to 3.2Mt.

Wesfarmers’ share of coal production at the Bengalla coal mine in New South Wales for the quarter was 14.4% below the previous quarter to 786,000t. That was due to the mine working in a less productive section of the mining sequence.

For the 12 months to June 30 Wesfarmers’ share of coal production increased by 2.4% to 3.3Mt.