Johannesburg-listed Keaton Energy produced 2.19 million mt of thermal coal from its Vanggatfontein Colliery in the financial year ended March 31, up 45% on the year, according to its production update released Wednesday.
It said all the thermal coal from the mine in the Witbank coalfield in South Africa's Mpumalanga province was delivered to state-owned utility Eskom.
The miner added that its metallurgical coal production for the year from both Vanggatfontein and the Vaalkrantz Colliery in the KwaZulu-Natal province ticked up 2% year-on-year to around 400,000 mt.
In line with Keaton's mine plan, met coal sales from Vanggatfontein climbed 49% on the year to 97,635 mt, while Vaalkrantz sold 303,837 mt of anthracite to the domestic and international met coal markets.
"FY14 saw Vanggatfontein reach operational steady state and deliver on results. This long life colliery now forms the backbone of the soon to be enlarged Vanggatfontein-Moabsvelden operation which will form the core of the growing Keaton group of companies," Keaton chief executive officer Mandi Glad said in the update.
Keaton said production at the Vaalkrantz Colliery had been limited by "extremely difficult mining conditions" in the West Alfred section of the mine. But it said the operation's remaining mine life was short and would be coming to an end in the near-future.
The miner said its discard and other coal product sales jumped 70% on the year to 1 million mt.
Keaton completed its acquisition of Australian-based coal explorer Xceed Resources in February, which was developing the Moabsvelden thermal coal project also in the Witbank coalfield, targeting domestic and export coal production for late 2014.
