Anglo American (LON: AAL), which divested its thermal coal mines last year after pressure from investors,聽has achieved its at its Aquila metallurgical coal mine near Central Queensland, Australia.
The milestone marks the project鈥檚 final stages of construction and commissioning, on schedule and within the budgeted $226 million,聽the company said.
The new mine extends the life of Anglo鈥檚 existing Capcoal underground operations by seven years, after the company鈥檚 nearby Grasstree mine reached its end of life in recent weeks.
Aquila, a 70-30 joint venture between Anglo American and Mitsui & Co., will have a total average yearly saleable production of around five million tonnes of premium quality hard coking coal.
鈥淭he mine will use our existing infrastructure at our Capcoal complex and support around 600 ongoing operational roles for our Queensland-based workforce, including providing continuity of employment for our Grasstree workforce,鈥� Anglo鈥檚 metallurgical coal boss,聽Tyler Mitchelson, said in the statement.
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Anglo American spun out its South African thermal coal operations聽and sold its stake in聽a Colombian mine to Glencore聽last year after shareholder calls to ditch the polluting fossil fuel to meet emissions targets.
Unlike its peers, the miner decided to hold on to its metallurgical coal assets, a key commodity in the making of steel.
Last year, Anglo American churned out 14.9 million tonnes of met coal, just shy of its 15 million tonnes target, thanks mostly to increased production at its lower grade Dawson mine. The move offset lower production at the high-grade Moranbah and the delayed restart of Grosvenor, which was聽shut following a gas ignition in May 2020.聽
Anglo American currently is the world鈥檚 third largest exporter of metallurgical coal.