Blair Athol shakes off a wet December to deliver

Blair Athol is the central Bowen Basin mine that keeps delivering. The open cut mine, is 340 km north-west of Rockhampton and 24 km north-west of Clermont. It's one of the state's oldest coal operations. Owner Terracom is forecasting sales of 2.2Mt this financial year. It comes off a good December quarter with coal sales of 500Mt. Related: Blair Athol delivers Terracom a good month's trade The company told the ASX in its December Quarterly Report that Blair Athol achieved an operating EBITA of $112.2million as export coal prices remained strong resulting in a cash margin of $224/t sold. Blair Athol achieved an average coal price if $408/t sold during the period delivering a record average coal price of $450/t sold for the six months ending 31 December 2022. The company paid a dividend in December 2022 of 10 cents per share fully franked (comprising 7.5c ordinary dividend and 2.5c special dividend) for the period ended 30 September 2022. The total payment to shareholders was $79.9 million. Maintaining operations The Blair Athol operation kept delivering through a period of significant rainfall said Managing Director, Danny McCarthy. “Coal prices remained buoyant allowing TerraCom to deliver another solid result for the December Quarter with a combined operating EBITDA result of $150 million being achieved from the Australian and South African operations said Mr McCarthy. “Whilst the Blair Athol mine faced significant rainfalls throughout the December Quarter, the mine continued to deliver reliable results, achieving 500kt of coal sales and remains on track to deliver forecast coal sales of 2.2 million tonnes in the 2023 Financial Year,” he said. “Our South African operations delivered a consistent result and domestic power deliveries remain in strong demand. Coal sales in the December Quarter were in line with expectations noting the high seasonal rainfall experienced by the operations and the annual festive season slowdown in South Africa in the latter half of December, he said. “The export logistics challenges are ongoing, and we continue to examine ways to maximise opportunities with export sales. “Following the dividend payment in early December, TerraCom has now returned $160 million to shareholders during the six-month period ending December 2022. In line with the Company’s dividend policy, the next dividend is expected to be declared in February and paid in March 2023.”

Blair Athol shakes off a wet December to deliver

Industry Queensland

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