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South Africa’s Universal Coal Q3 ROM output up 23% qtr-on-qtr to 580,007 mt

South African miner Universal Coal said Wednesday it produced 580,007 mt run-of-mine coal from its 70.5%-owned Kangala Colliery in the third quarter, 1.3% more than planned.
The figure was up 23% quarter-on-quarter. No year-on-year comparison was provided.
Universal said 505,662 mt of the ROM coal was processed for sale, up 31.2% quarter on quarter, while 22,885 mt was used to line the base of product stockpiles, with the rest stockpiled.
Sales fell short of plans. Universal sold 342,933 mt of domestic coal from July-September, down 8.6% and below an expected 375,000 mt because of “transport scheduling inefficiencies and slower than anticipated ramp-up following hot commissioning of the dense media separation plant”, it said.
Just 182 mt of export coal was sold to Exxaro, compared with a planned 26,667 mt, amid “delay in the implementation of the logistical solution which was successfully implemented towards the quarter end”. It started exporting thermal coal from Kangala in the Witbank coalfield at the end of September.
Under Universal’s supply and purchase agreement with Exxaro, it will transport coal by road to Exxaro’s Leeuwpan mine where infrastructure and access rights to the Delmas siding will be used to rail the coal to Richards Bay Coal Terminal, where Exxaro will market and export the coal.
Universal, which has a 51,000 mt/year export allocation at RBCT through the Quattro Entitlement scheme, said it has applied to the Department of Mineral Resources to increase the allocation.
Mining activities at its 74%-owned, export-focused Roodekop project — which will be joined with the New Clydesdale Colliery once the acquisition from Exxaro has been completed — were set to start during the fourth quarter, it said.
Source: Platts