Thanks to increased production from Queensland operations and higher production at Illawarra Coal as a result of improved operating performance and the commissioning of Dendrobium in April 2005, production was 5% higher than in the 2004 financial year.

Metallurgical coal output for the June 2005 quarter was 9.6Mt, 3% above the June 2004 quarter, primarily reflecting Dendrobium’s ramp-up. This was partly offset by a longwall change-out at West Cliff and scheduled maintenance at the mine’s coal preparation plant.

Energy Coal production for the 2005 financial year was 87.4Mt, 4% higher than in 2004. BHPB said this reflected the continued ramp-up of production at Australian operation Mt Arthur Coal and increased production from New Mexico Coal (USA) following improved dragline availability at Navajo Coal (USA).

Production for the June quarter was 22.7Mt, 6% higher than the corresponding 2004 quarter. Increased production was a result of inventory building in preparation for a dragline outage at Navajo Coal, and lower production in the June 2004 quarter at San Juan Coal (USA) following a longwall move.

Production was 13% higher than the March 2005 quarter, reflecting increased production at Ingwe (South Africa) in response to increased South African domestic demand, a longwall move at San Juan Coal in the March 2005 quarter, and the ramp-up of production at Mt Arthur Coal.