South African coal miner Coal of Africa (CoAL) has reported
a 6% year-on-year increase in its loss for the 12 months that ended on June 30
this year.
The company recorded a $148.1 million loss for the year,
compared with $138.9 million a year earlier, in a financial statement published
on Friday August 30.
It blamed the result on difficult operating and financial
conditions, including force majeure declarations and exchange rate losses.
Non-cash charges of $106.6 million were included in the loss
figure for 2013, following an impairment on Mooiplaats, one of CoAL’s thermal
coal collieries, as well as foreign exchange losses due to the weakening of the
South African rand against the US dollar.
The exchange rate averaged R1 to $0.0994 in the last week of
June this year, compared with R1 to $0.1192 in the last week of June last year,
according to exchange rate service Oanda.com.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed miner has made
“significant progress” in executing a strategic turnaround of its business in
the past four months, CoAL CEO David Brown said.
“This strategy will reposition CoAL as a project development
company with a significant pipeline of hard coking coal near-term and
longer-term projects,” he added.
The Vele Colliery in Limpopo province, where CoAL produces
semi-soft coking coal, increased its output two-fold during the 2013 financial
year as the ramp-up of operations continued.
Run-of-mine production reached 536,846 tonnes in the year,
compared with 161,107 tonnes a year earlier. Of this, 149,690 tonnes were
exported, compared with 46,066 tonnes in the 2011-12 financial year.
However, the colliery suffered from higher-than-normal
rainfall in January, resulting in flooding of the pit, which caused CoAL to
declare force majeure.
In February, a train derailment on the Maputo corridor,
which CoAL uses for its coal exports, resulted in the closure of the railway
line and a further force majeure period.
CoAL’s Makhado project is progressing, Brown said, with the
definitive feasibility study now finalised. Makhado is expected to produce 2.3
million tpy of hard coking coal.