How much is Moranbah worth to Anglo American in terms of metallurgical coal tonne production? About 1 million tonnes, or one quarter of the company's total metallurgical coal production.
That is a key argument Peabody Energy is putting up as it tries to either bail on its $6 billion deal to buy Anglo American's Australian metallurgical coal assets or at least drop the price.
In the June quarter of 2025, Anglo American's met coal business produced 2.06Mt, split 1.75Mt of hard coking coal, 307,000t of pulverised coal injection or semi-soft coking coal, and 298,000t of export thermal coal. That is down 51% due to the shuttering of both the Moranbah and Grosvenor mines.
However, it is the problems with Moranbah that have Peabody most concerned.
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A look at the production figures from the June quarter 2024 shows a business turning out 4.24Mt of coal. That result included the outputs of Grosvenor and Moranbah. In that quarter Grosvenor put out 1.2Mt and Moranbah 923,000t.
Grosvenor was shuttered at the end of June 2024 due to a fire underground. It only turned out 191,000t for the September quarter of 2024 and has produced nothing since.
Moranbah had to be shuttered at the end of March after a fire underground there.
In the March quarter it produced 532,000t and only 136,000t in the June quarter.
Anglo American has completed the initial re-entry of the Moranbah mine and is in the final preparatory stages of a Grosvenor re-entry.
Remember, those are only re-entry efforts.
It is a big step from re-entry to restarting longwall production.
There will also need to be some investment in longwall equipment too.
Peabody is well aware of just how difficult it is to get a longwall mine going again.
Its Centurion, the mine formerly known as North Goonyella, is on track to restart longwall production in 2026.
That mine was closed in 2018 after a fire underground.
Peabody managed to wave off first production coal from the reopened workings in February, some six and a half years since it closed. That was only development coal.
That is not to say Moranbah and Grosvenor cannot get back to full longwall production. It is just that it will likely take quite a while.
Anglo American chief executive officer Duncan Wanblad said the company was still progressing the met coal sale transaction.
Calving off coal is only part of the picture for Anglo American. It is also trying to calve off its ageing platinum operation and sell its nickel mines and De Beers diamond business.
That will leave it a much leaner company focused on copper and iron ore.
