Anglo faces headwinds in keeping restructuring on track
Anglo has been forced to accelerate its restructuring after successfully holding off a bid from BHP, the world’s biggest miner.
Anglo American (LON: AAL) is ramping up work to resume longwall mining at its Grosvenor coal mine in Queensland, Australia, almost 18 months after a methane explosion seriously injured five workers.
The company, which was granted permission to bring back workers to the mine in April to conduct safety and compliance inspections, said it has since been implementing a staged resumption of operations.
Delivering its third quarter results, Anglo noted it aimed to resume operations by the end of the year, subject to approval.
Since the accident, the company said it has completed works to permanently seal the impacted area of the mine, installed additional gas monitoring infrastructure and completed a risk assessment process, drawing on both internal and external experts.
Anglo American’s export metallurgical coal production dropped 11% to 4.3 million tonnes for the September quarter, as operations at its Moranbah North coal mine in Queensland were impacted by challenging geological conditions for most of the quarter.
Grosvenor, located about 190km south-west of Mackay, produced its first coal in 2016 and has an anticipated mine life of over 30 years.
