Peabody Declares Force Majeure at Australia Coal Mine
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Peabody Energy Corp., the biggest U.S. coal company, says production has halted and force majeure declared at its Wilkie Creek mine in Australia after heavy rain disrupted the rail network.
“This rainfall has really prevented our mining operations at the site, we haven’t been able to stockpile or load, and no train loading can occur,” Jennifer Morgans, Brisbane-based spokeswoman for Peabody Australia said on March 6.
Wilkie Creek, which has the capacity to produce 2.3 million tonnes a year of power-station coal, is in the Surat Basin of south-east Queensland. A month’s worth of rain has dropped on parts of the southern region of the state in the past three days, the Courier Mail newspaper reported yesterday. Heavy rain is predicted for the next day and a half, Morgans said.
“I would imagine that there would be no loading in the next day or so, and that’s why we’ve had to call force majeure,” she said. Coal is railed 250 kilometers (155 miles) to Brisbane port for export to Japan, Taiwan and Korea, Peabody said on its Web site.
Source: China Coal Resource
For more information:
Web site: http://www.peabodyenergy.com.au
