By Salomae Haselgrove

October 10, 2020 - TerraCom has confronted challenging coal market conditions to export 620,000 tonnes of coal from its Australian operations during the September quarter.

The company exceeded initial expectations of reduced coal sales of 2 million tonnes per annum to achieve the result.

TerraCom achieved this while taking over the Blair Athol mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin as owner/operator at the end of July.

The Blair Athol site

Image: TerraCom

During the takeover period, TerraCom has refined the mining process at Blair Athol to cut costs and run the mine more efficiently, which chief executive officer Danny McCarthy said has delivered ‘exceptional’ results.

“With an enhanced mine plan, optimized workforce numbers and significantly reduced cost base, Blair Athol has achieved an annualized coal sales run rate of 2.45 million tonnes per annum for the September 2020 quarter,” McCarthy said.

“Since taking over the Blair Athol operations as owner operator the company has identified a number of operational efficiencies and refinements within its mining process.

“Compared to the 2020 financial year, the company has reduced annualized coal sales from Blair Athol by only 109,000 tonnes or 4.2 percent yet at the same time refined the operating cost per tonne resulting in more than a 17 percent reduction.”

TerraCom is now well positioned to achieve managed annual coal sales of 10.2 million tonnes or higher for the 2021 financial year.

The company acquired the Blair Athol mine via its subsidiary Orion Mining for just $1 from the Rio Tinto managed Blair Athol coal joint venture in 2016.