Exports from the equally owned BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Glencore Xstrata mine resumed in March after 32 days of strikes.

What followed was another challenging period, with guerrillas blamed for bombing the mine’s rail line and three guerrillas apprehended days later over an incident where a Cerrejon mine worker was shot.

Despite these setbacks, Cerrejon operations vice president Luis Meneses told Bloomberg that the mine would produce 33.6 million tonnes and the shortfall from the 34Mt target was due to rains in September.

“At the end of the strike we developed and implemented a recuperation plan,” Meneses reportedly said.

“This was possible thanks to the early arrival of some mining teams linked to our expansion project.”

He reportedly said the expansion plans aimed to lift production to 41Mt, while a Deutsche Bank analyst found Meneses’ news on this year’s production “a bit surprising”