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BHP Billiton chief financial officer Peter Beaven told an analysts’ conference call that the company could do even more to improve the productivity of longwalls in the future.
“I think one of the less well known facts is the strength of our seams and the fact that we've actually got top coal caving working at Broadmeadow,” he said.
“In fact, that longwall was the most productive longwall in Australia this last period. And that does give us opportunities to deploy that technology in further parts of our resource base, which are not actually replicable, because we're one of the very few that has the height of seams that we've got. So, yes, that's definitely something we're looking at.”
BHP Billiton CEO Andrew Mackenzie said he was on-site at Broadmeadow three weeks ago and saw the longwall in operation.
“I was reassured, in a very bottom-up way, by the people who drive productivity, that even though we're the top operating longwall I think in Australia that they could go a lot better in the future,” he said.
“Particularly with perhaps a little bit more pressure on the remediation of open pits. Having that ability to go a bit deeper and have a little less disturbance and take the majority of as much as a nine metre seam is quite something.”
Mackenzie said coal was not “off the radar” for the company.
“I don't think it ever has been for us,” he said.
“We've been very strong. It's one of our pillars. And we have actually got a lot of the benefits, albeit at a higher cost, within this period by running what we've got at Caval Ridge a bit harder, and also from by trucking some met coal from Peak Downs.
“But this is a business that we think has good potential, and we look at it in that light. And it's a particularly attractive business for us because of our position in the market, and the fact that India has no real metallurgical coal, unlike China.”
McKenzie said the Chinese drive to restructure their mining activities in both coals through their restructuring of steel made the bulks a little bit more investable than they might otherwise have been.
