The miner, which is the subject of an $8 billion merger with Yanzhou as a possible takeover, produced 1.1 million tonnes of coal for the quarter ending December 31, up from 451,000 tonnes in the corresponding period.
The Gloucester Basin managed to produce 541,000t of coal while its Donaldson operations recorded 427,000t of product for the quarter.
Gloucester said its Gloucester Basin Duralie mine was the standout for the quarter, delivering a record run of mine production volumes.
With large quantities of coal now exposed at Duralie, Gloucester said the Clareval and Weismantel pits were now well-positioned to deliver strong flows in the latter half of the financial year.
Gloucester attributed the ramp-up of Middlemount as the main reason its total recorded sales for the quarter reached 1.1Mt, up 77% from first quarter sales.
Despite the jump in sales and production, Gloucester said its stockpiles for the quarter had risen.
“Gloucester Basin stocks at the end of the quarter were higher than expected due to a drop off in demand and prices for its semi hard coking coal,” the company said.
“Overall demand for coal, in particular semi soft and semi hard coals and realisable coal prices were substantially subdued during the period.
“In response to this sharp decline in demand for metallurgical coals, management took steps to change its production profile towards producing a higher percentage of thermal coal.”
Shifting to increased thermal coal production saw thermal coal sales contribute to 799,000t of overall sales.
Metallurgical coal sales hit 313,000t for the quarter.
During the quarter, the New South Wales Land & Environment Court approved the company’s Duralie extension project, which will see production of Duralie increase by 3 million tonnes per annum.
In November, Gloucester opened its 16.5km rail spur linking the Middlemount coal joint venture project in the Bowen Basin to the Goonyella rail network.
The rail spur will enable the ramp-up of coal production over the next few years.
Gloucester is expecting the environmental authority to grant an increase in run of mine production from 1.8Mtpa to 5.4Mtpa by the end of the 2012 financial year.
