Project and operations updateMining and minerals
Whitehaven production grows as export terminal outages defer coal sales
Whitehaven reported higher September-quarter run-of-mine production, while loading disruptions at two export terminals pushed some sales into the following quarter.
- Event
- First published on EPC Feed
- Sources
- 2 listed below
- Reading time
- 2 min
Whitehaven Coal reported 11.0 million tonnes of managed run-of-mine production for the September quarter, up 3% on the June quarter and 22% on the prior corresponding period. Equity sales of produced coal were 6.0Mt, down 5% quarter on quarter. The company attributed the divergence to reduced vessel throughput at RG Tanna in Queensland and Port Waratah Coal Services (PWCS) in New South Wales, which delayed shipments into the December quarter. Those are company-reported operating figures and explanation, not evidence of a mine production shortfall.
The quarterly report records 5.5Mt of managed production in each state. Queensland equity sales were 2.8Mt, down 12% from June, while NSW sales were 3.2Mt, up 2%. Whitehaven said outages at RG Tanna totalled 12 days during the quarter, and Queensland closing stocks rose by 1.0Mt to 3.1Mt. At PWCS, a loader had returned to service and queues were reducing; a separate planned outage was expected to finish in November. The company expected the increased inventories and delayed sales to unwind as terminal operations normalised. That expectation remains a forecast.
The company’s Blackwater mine profile explains one part of the Queensland route: Blackwater’s products are exported through RG Tanna at Gladstone. Whitehaven describes Blackwater as a large open-cut metallurgical coal operation that also produces thermal coal. This asset-level context helps identify the connection between one mine and the disrupted terminal, but does not mean all Queensland production reported in the quarterly totals came from Blackwater. The quarterly report covers the company’s wider operations, and its Queensland totals should not be attributed to a single mine without a mine-level split.
Whitehaven reported a group average achieved price of A$226 per tonne, up 2% quarter on quarter. Unit cost was at the low end of its FY27 guidance range of A$132–147/t. Net debt was approximately A$1.4 billion at 30 September; management said the temporary effect of sales slippage and higher stocks was expected to unwind in the December quarter. The report does not quantify what portion of the debt movement was due to the terminal delays, so that expectation should not be read as a measured causal estimate.
Production, sales, inventory and port throughput measure different stages of the supply chain: coal may be mined in the period but remain in stock or await a vessel before it is sold. Whitehaven’s report links the quarter’s lower equity sales to terminal performance and describes stock accumulation, while the next quarterly release will show whether the expected shipment catch-up occurred. No new port construction contract or EPC award is announced in this operating update.
Sources
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