World News

IN BRIEF WORLD NEWS

INDIA

The status of 20 non-operational captive and commercial coal blocks in Jharkhand state was recently reviewed by an additional secretary and nominated authority of the Indian Ministry of Coal in the presence of officers from the Ministry of the Environment, Forests & Climate Change Department. The Ministry of Coal appreciated the improvement in the overall status of the non-operational coal blocks in Jharkhand, and the assistance provided by the state mining and forest departments. It was determined that three to four coal blocks will get mine opening permission, and coal production will start during this financial year. Production from the captive and commercial coal blocks of Jharkhand is likely to be around 37.3 million t in 2022 – 2023, compared to 17.72 million t in 2021 – 2022; thus resulting in a predicted 110.4% increase in coal production over the two years.

CANADA

Teck Resources Ltd has announced that there has been a structural failure of the plant feed conveyor belt at its Elkview steelmaking coal operation in the Elk Valley of British Columbia. Initial estimates are that production at Elkview Operations will be interrupted for one to two months as repairs are implemented. Elkview will reschedule planned plant maintenance to take advantage of plant downtime and mine operations will focus on prestripping during the outage. Assuming a two-month suspension of plant operations, Teck expects the impact on 2022 steelmaking coal production will be around 1.5 million t. When also factoring in the impact of the recent labour action at Westshore Terminals, Teck’s 3Q22 steelmaking coal sales are now expected to be between 5.5 – 5.9 million t, compared to their previously announced guidance range of 5.8 – 6.2 million t.

USA Coronado Global Resources to expand in Southwest Virginia

The Governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, has announced that Coronado Global Resources Inc. plans to expand in Buchanan County and Tazewell County. The company’s commitment of US$169.1 million toward this effort will increase capacity at its Buchanan Mine Complex to meet the growing demand for metallurgical coal.

“Coronado Global Resources’ major expansion is a win-win, creating 181 high-paying jobs in the resilient Buchanan community and increasing Southwest Virginia’s production of an essential component for the steel industry,” said Youngkin.

Contango Holdings Plc has provided an update with respect to developments regarding the thermal coal at the Lubu project.

The company has, in recent months, received a number of unsolicited approaches from buyers of thermal coal (ranging from trading houses to industrial consumers) from Africa, Europe, and Asia. In the last 12 months, it is well documented that thermal coal prices have increased dramatically from approximately US$125/t to US$450/t, due to the increased demand from energy displacement and severe shortage of supply due to closure of thermal coal mines.

The Lubu deposit contains significant quantities of both coking and thermal coal, and has a current NI 43-101 resource totalling more than 1 billion t of coal. The company had initially focused on extraction of coking coal from Block 2, given the seams have strong coking coal characteristics and thermal coal was historically seen as a by-product. At Block 2, it is expected that approximately 60% of coal extracted will be thermal coal, whilst 40% will be coking coal.

The company will continue to focus on delivering coking coal and following its coke development strategy, however it believes it can create substantial additional shareholder value by also selling thermal coal internationally. The company believes the development of thermal coal sales would only require modest capital costs, funded from internal cash flow, to increase the scale of operations and infrastructure, whilst the cost of mining is negligible as the thermal coal is effectively a by-product of the coking coal mined. Given the thermal coal price movements and current interest expressed in the product, the company is now exploring the feasibility of exporting thermal coal internationally via ports outside of South Africa, which no longer has export capacity.

The company anticipates that it will be able to deliver 10 000 t of coking coal and 10 000 t of thermal coal per month based on current capacity. Also, the company believes it can expect to benefit from margins of US$100 – 150/t on sales of thermal coal based on recent offtake discussions and in the current thermal coal pricing environment. The company anticipates it can begin delivering thermal coal in 1H23 subject to finalising transport and export routes.

ZIMBABWE Contango Holdings provides Lubu update

DIARY DATES

China Mining Expo 2022

18 – 21 October 2022 Xian, China www.chinaminingexpo.com

World Coal Leaders Network 2022

23 – 25 October 2022 Athens, Greece www.coaltrans.com

IMARC 2022

02 – 04 November 2022 Sydney, Australia www.imarcglobal.com

Mines and Money @ IMARC

02 – 04 November 2022 Sydney, Australia www.minesandmoney.com/imarc

4th Annual India Coal Conference

03 – 04 November 2022 New Dehli, India www.icc-2022.com

Global Hydrogen Conference 2022

16 November 2022 Online www.globalhydrogenreview.com/ghc22

Resourcing Tomorrow brought to you by Mines and Money

29 November – 01 December 2022 London, UK www.minesandmoney.com/london

CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2023

14 – 18 March 2023 Las Vegas, USA www.conexpoconagg.com/ north-americas-largest-constructiontrade-show

China Coal & Mining Expo 2023

25 – 28 October 2023 Beijing, China www.chinaminingcoal.com

To stay informed about the status of industry events and any potential postponements or cancellations of events, visit World Coal’s events page: www.worldcoal.com/events

WORLD NEWS

MONGOLIA Jade Gas delivers substantial maiden contingent resources

Jade Gas Holdings has delivered substantial maiden contingent resources at its flagship TTCBM Project in the South Gobi region of Mongolia.

Jade has delivered a gross contingent resources estimate for the Red Lake area of 1C of 118 billion ft3, 2C of 246 billion ft3, and 3C of 305 billion ft3 – the largest contingent resources for coal bed methane in Mongolia to date. The contingent resources estimate was compiled by the Jade technical team in Australia and Mongolia using standard industry practices. The estimate is deterministic based on mapping of net coal thickness, combined with desorbed gas content, gas composition, methane isotherm studies, ash and moisture content from testing undertaken on a recovered core, and pressure and permeability information from drill stem testing. RISC Advisory has audited the estimated volumes and considers them reasonable in aggregate.

Chris Jamieson, Jade Managing Director and CEO, said: “Our maiden contingent resources booking at our flagship TTCBM Project is the largest in Mongolia and, critically, only covers a small portion of the prospective area within our permit.

“The initial Gross 2C contingent resources of 246 billion ft3 of gas is a solid foundation that demonstrates the significant scale and potential ahead of us. It should also signal confidence to the market and potential customers as the company continues to execute on its ambition to become a meaningful Mongolian gas producer.”

FINLAND Fortum’s Meri-Pori power plant not selected for peak-load reserve capacity

The Energy Authority has announced its decision on the power plants for Finland’s next peak-load reserve capacity period. The Meri-Pori coal condensing power plant, offered by Fortum for peak-load reserve capacity, was not selected in the tendering process.

Fortum will start preparing the Meri-Pori power plant for commercial use. The power plant will undergo a thorough annual outage in October 2022. During the annual outage, maintenance will be performed in an effort to ensure that the Meri-Pori power plant can operate at its full capacity of 560 MW if needed. In the upcoming weeks, additional personnel will also be recruited for the plant.

Commercial use of the plant will be taken into consideration in the procurement of the coal and chemicals needed to operate the plant. However, the deployment of actual electricity production depends on the electricity market situation at the given time.

The Meri-Pori plant, in Tahkoluoto, is Finland’s last coal-fired condensing plant generating electricity only. It was commissioned in 1994 and has been in the peak-load reserve system since 2017. It has been designed as a base-load plant, which, after start-up, will operate at a constant power output for long periods of time.

WORLD NEWS

AUSTRALIA Bowen Coking Coal Ltd announces first coal processed and second Bluff vessel shipped

Bowen Coking Coal Ltd has processed first coal from its Broadmeadow East mine, near Moranbah, whilst shipping a second vessel of approximately 40 000 t of ultra-low volatile pulverised coal injection (ULVPCI) coal from its Bluff Mine, located near Blackwater.

Mining at Broadmeadow East, the first pit in the enlarged Burton Complex, which also includes the nearby Lenton and Burton pits, has gained momentum with more than 100 000 t of run of mine (ROM) coal mined to date and further coal uncovered in the pit. Initial coal haulage to Fitzroy’s nearby Carborough Downs mine coal handling and processing plant (CHPP) has been slower than anticipated, but is expected to ramp up during September as the haulage contractor mobilises more equipment. First coal has been processed over the weekend and sample analysis is underway for statutory export permits to pave the way for first coal sales in coming weeks.

Refurbishment work at the Burton CHPP and train load out facility (TLO) is underway. A fast tracked, phased recommissioning of the TLO is planned to start from early next quarter, opening the potential for additional bypass thermal coal sales while the CHPP is recommissioned. The refurbished CHPP is expected to wash first coal from Broadmeadow East in 1Q23. In the interim the company will utilise the Fitzroy CHPP and potentially other third-party infrastructure to process and ship coal until such time as the Burton CHPP and TLO are ready to do so. Some 200 rooms of the 350 plus person camp have now been fully refurbished and are being utilised by the mining contractor and infrastructure refurbishment crew.

The additional 400 t excavator mobilised at the Bluff Mine is performing well and is assisting in accelerating overburden removal to achieve an ongoing ROM target of 80 000 – 100 000 tpm early in the next quarter, representing an annualised production rate of between 1 million and 1.2 million tpy ROM over four to six years to supply the global steel industry. Unseasonal wet weather required additional surface water management actions, and COVID-19 impacts on the mining and haulage workforce had some impact on short-term production.

USA Westmoreland San Juan Mining mines final tonne of coal

Beginning as a surface mining operation in 1973, when Unit 1 of the San Juan Generating Station came online, the San Juan and La Plata mines have been the sole supplier of coal to the San Juan Generating Station for nearly five decades. At its peak, the four units of the San Juan Generating Station produced 1848 MW of electricity for millions of households and countless businesses across New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Utah.

Eventually transitioning to an underground operation with a longwall mining system, the San Juan mine has been ‘home’ to thousands of employees over the years, and has played a transformational role in the prosperity and commercial development of the surrounding communities.

According to Martin Purvis, Westmoreland’s CEO, the discussion is no longer about policy debates surrounding the generating station and mine, but about finally saying: ‘Thank you’.

“Ignoring all the rights, wrongs, and arguments about the premature closure of this amazing facility, we as a company want to make sure that we say thank you to the men, women, and communities that have worked together so effectively over the years, to make this mine and generating station a bedrock of power supply in the Southwestern United States,”

Steve Pierro, the mine’s General Manager is one of those people. Pierro, who is retiring after 40 plus years in mining to spend more time with his wife, eight children and 33 grandchildren, agrees and reflects fondly back on the mine’s performance as well as his time there. “It is hard to see the mine close,” he says, “but as I look back on all we accomplished and all the incredible people I’ve had a chance to work with, I can’t help but be extremely proud of our outstanding track record at this operation. We have put a lot of people from all walks of life to work. We have injected millions of dollars back into the local economy – as well as millions of dollars to local and national charities. We have provided countless educational and training opportunities to our workers so they could improve their lives and those of their families. And, to top it all off, we have had one of the top safety and compliance records in North America. That’s really something to be proud of.”