Vale doubles coking coal output in Q3 2012

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Global production came to 1.2 million tonnes, up from 586,000 tonnes a year earlier, the Brazilian company announced late on Wednesday October 17.

Moatize contributed 624,000 tonnes of metallurgical coal to the third quarter total.

The 11 million-tpy metallurgical and thermal coal project in Mozambique came on-stream late in September 2011. Vale noted, however, that the ramp-up of the first phase of Moatize was delayed by constraints in logistics.

“Capacity at the Linha do Sena railway is expected to be expanded in the fourth quarter of 2012, as the enhancement of track signalling was completed, allowing for faster train speeds and transportation of larger volumes of metallurgical coal by year-end,” it added.

Metallurgical coal production at Carborough Downs in Australia fell by 52.7% year-on-year in the third quarter, to 131,000 tonnes.

Operations at the mine were resumed at the end of August, after a stoppage caused by the detection of abnormal levels of carbon monoxide at the site, Vale said.

Production at Australia’s Integra Coal came to 285,000 tonnes of metallurgical coal in the third quarter, up by 249.7% year-on-year.

This increase was due to a longwall move, which affected output in the third quarter of 2011, the miner noted.

Between January and September, Vale’s metallurgical coal production increased by 126.9%, to 3.61 million tonnes.