February 21, 2019 - Operations at Anglo American's Moranbah North coking coal mine in Queensland, Australia has been suspended until further notice, the company said in a statement Thursday. The suspension was due to an incident that occurred at the mine on Wednesday, which resulted in one death and several injured. "The mines' inspectorate investigation is underway.

Production remains in shutdown and will not recommence until the incident site has been released by the department and the mine can safely resume operation," a spokeswoman for Anglo American said in an email reply to S&P Global Platts' queries.

When contacted, market participants said it was too soon to assess the impact of the closure of the Moranbah North mine. "The accident happened close to the surface and it is not severe," an analyst said, expecting the mine to be closed for three to five days.

Anglo American did not provide a timeline on the reopening of the mine. A miner said mining activity and production will come under scrutiny and may exert pressure on supply. "We are continuously seeing market disruptions," another miner said, referring to the Aurizon dispute, weather concerns in Australia and Peabody's North Goonyella mine closure due to a mine fire. All had not caused prices to spike.

Aurizon remains embroiled in a dispute with the state regulator, and is cutting coal haulage services to align with changes to their maintenance plans. Moranbah North is 88% owned by Anglo American.

The mine's hard coking coal is exported mainly to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Brazil and Europe. The mine produced 19.7 million mt and 20.9 million mt of metallurgical coal in 2017 and 2016, respectively, according to Anglo American's 2017 annual report.

According to Platts data, Anglo American had a 9% market share in the premium hard coking coal segment in 2018, while in the Premium Mid Vol segment, Anglo American's Moranbah North mine has a market share of 28.3%.

This compares with BMA's Goonyella at 59.6%, South32's Illawarra at 9.9% and Peabody's North Goonyella at 2.2%.

Platts last assessed Premium Low Vol at $210/mt FOB Australia Wednesday, up $2/mt day on day.