This article is 4 years old. Images might not display.
He said, in Whitehaven's annual report, that the company's focus is on maintaining solid production performance and optimising its coal product offering to "make the most of the incredibly strong seaborne coal price environment".
"While we saw cyclical lows in pricing, towards the end of the year coal prices reached historic highs as the global economic recovery picked up pace amid continuing tightness in supply," he said.
"During the cyclical lows our operations maintained production, ensuring our people had security of employment and the company was not reliant on government support.
"Operationally, while we had our hands full putting the more difficult geological conditions at Narrabri behind us, we also saw our largest mine, Maules Creek, achieve record annual run-of-mine production of 12.7 million tonnes."
Flynn said this was a clear indication of the operational discipline and consistency the company had been striving to achieve.
"Across the group, our RoM [run-of-mine] production of 20.6Mt was in line with the prior year," he said.
"Positively, while also contending with port and logistics disruption, COVID-19 and other challenges, we managed to contain costs and chart our way through some difficult market conditions.
"It was a great team effort by our people."
Flynn said Whitehaven's ongoing investment in people and systems in the environmental performance and compliance areas demonstrated the value it placed on environmental management and its relationship to its social licence to operate.
"The integration of our Health, Safety & Environment function, established in early FY21, is already delivering positive outcomes around compliance culture and adherence to clear systems and processes," he said.
"During FY21 we reached milestones on each of our development projects. The Vickery Extension project received its state-based approval, while the Narrabri Stage 3 Extension project and the Winchester South project - our first development in Queensland - are both progressing well through their respective planning processes."
