Macarthur produced 1.27Mt from its Coppabella and Moorvale mines during the March quarter, bringing annual output to date to 3.76Mt, equating to an annualised rate of 5Mt.

With this in mind the Queensland producer remains on track to achieve its net profit after tax guidance of $A140-150 million for 2006.

Macarthur has all but finalised negotiations for the 2006 contract year, with the average price for low volatile PCI coal declining from 2005 prices by 30%.

During the quarter, coking coal production commenced at Moorvale Mine with the company progressing negotiations and deliveries of coking coal trial cargoes to potential customers.

Thermal coal production has increased to approximately 40% of total production at Moorvale Mine as a result of producing a coking coal product.

Overburden removal rates at the company’s flagship mine, Coppabella, fell during the March quarter due to maintenance, damage to an excavator and the impact of a wall slip onto a 400,000t block of coal.

Slimcore drilling on a 1000m grid and testing for the Moorvale West and Moorvale underground projects started during the quarter.

A 2D seismic survey traversing the Moorvale underground area was undertaken and design of a 3D seismic survey layout over the initial mining areas for the Moorvale West and Moorvale underground projects was completed with the 3D seismic survey scheduled for the June 2006 quarter.

The Moorvale West coking coal project is now at JORC Resource status comprising 68Mt of indicated resources and 54Mt of inferred resources.