Further impacts are expected in the December quarter, as the wet weather delayed overburden removal at its Queensland mines in recent months.

BHP’s share of met coal production totalled 10.3 million tonnes for the recent quarter.

Although this was down on the June quarter, it was up 10% year-on-year due to stronger demand, plus “improved operational and supply chain performance”.

The mining giant’s global thermal coal production reached 17.11Mt in the September quarter – up 5% from the previous quarter and down 5% from the corresponding period a year ago.

The South African operations helped lift output, including the ongoing ramp-up at the Klipspruit mine and a better operational result at the giant Khutala Colliery.

BHP said this was offset by plant tie-in activities relating to the MAC20 project at its Mt Arthur mine in the Hunter Valley, plus weather-related disruptions at the Cerrejon mine in Colombia and demand constraints at New Mexico Coal in the US.

In late September, BHP finally received state government approval for its $A784 million Mt Arthur Coal Consolidation project to extract up to 36Mt per annum of raw coal.

The MAC20 project relates to an open cut expansion at the mine, which will lift saleable thermal coal production by 3.5Mtpa, and BHP said construction was 86% complete while the overall project was 92% complete.

The company’s share of production from the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance mines in Queensland reached 6.54Mt of saleable met coal in the recent quarter.

This was down 8% from the previous quarter – highlighting some of the wet weather impacts.

Saleable met coal production from the BHP Mitsui Coal mines increased 8% to 1.91Mt by the same comparison, while output of this commodity from its Illawarra mines in New South Wales slipped 10% to 1.85Mt.

Compared to the June quarter, BHP’s thermal coal production slipped 10% in Australia, 7% in the USA and 14% in Colombia.

But its major output of the commodity is from South Africa, where production increased 24% to 9Mt.

Queensland shipments of quality coking coal fell 9% from the June quarter to 6.64Mt, while weaker met coal shipments were down 22% to 1.65Mt.

Coking coal shipments from BHP’s Illawarra mines fell 16% from the June quarter to 1.39Mt, while their thermal coal shipments increased 70% to 362,000 tonnes.

BHP remains positive despite the continued uncertainties in the developed world because of the strength of commodities demand coming from emerging economies, along with the “ongoing delay in the supply side response”

BHP shares are down 1.2% to $40.68 this morning.