LONDON (Alliance News) - Atlantic Coal PLC Tuesday said its production rates and coal sales volumes fell in its first quarter due to weather constraints in North America during the period.
The coal miner said its clean coal production fell 14% to 35,757 tonnes in the three months ended March 31 from 41,555 tonnes in the previous quarter as the cold and long winter in Pennsylvania caused major operational problems.
The company also said its clean coal sales volumes fell 14% to 36,449 tonnes from 42,280 tonnes and its clean coal stockpile fell 7.5% to 2,702 tonnes from 2,922 tonnes, both also compared to the previous quarter.
"Washing coal at temperatures consistently well below freezing proved to be particularly problematic and health and safety concerns, as well as practical considerations, also resulted in mining operations often having to be suspended or scaled back," Managing Director Steve Best said in a statement.
However, the company said trials on improving both mined coal and wash plant recoveries are progressing well, and it is confident that it can achieve overall improvements in production, efficiency and profitability for the rest of 2014.
Atlantic Coal shares were down 15% to 0.145 pence, making it the second biggest AIM ALL-Share faller Tuesday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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