Multinational mining major, Anglo American has restarted operations at its Grosvenor coal mine in Queensland, Australia after receiving approval from state mining department.
The mine located in the Moranbah region of Queensland was evacuated last week after an explosion injured five workers, and had required prompt clearance of staff working at the site.
Commissioned in 2016, Grosvenor mine is a longwall metallurgical coal operation, which had produced 4.7 MnT of metallurgical or steel-making coal in 2019.
During the lockdown announced by Australia amid ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the operations at the mine continued at normal levels despite the revised rotations to manage social distancing and the impact of interstate travel restrictions.
Australian coking coal prices have plunged significantly because of COVID-19 pandemic which had begun its spread from March end. The premium hard coking coal prices are currently being assessed at USD 113-114/MT, FoB Australia basis down from USD 163/MT in mid-March and lowest since August 2016.
Anglo American’s plans to exit coal business
Last week, Anglo American announced that it will be speeding up its exit from thermal coal business in South Africa within next three years.
The company highlighted that there is increasing pressure from investors, regulators, and environmental organisations that has pushed the miner to either sell coal assets or to limit their exposure to the fossil-fuel in recent years.
While the demerger of the South African coal operations is its preferred option, this move could leave the company with thermal coal assets only in Colombia.
As Anglo is moving away from thermal coal operations, metallurgical or coking coal appears to be one of its key commodities going forward. The miner had recently increased its medium-term guidance for the steelmaking ingredient to an estimated 26-28 MnT by 2022.
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