Bathurst Resources - BRL

[BlackPeter]

No need to get carried away yet-total $ spend at the moment $30k

Well, make that more than 40k if you add what happened on the just opened ASX. Still, I agree - low dollars for most stocks, but lots for BRL (and less than half a trading day so far).

[Billy Boy]

Traders will start ditching before sun down
BB

[BlackPeter]

Traders will start ditching before sun down
BB

No need to get carried away yet-total $ spend at the moment $30k

Ah well - over the last 12 months this was on the NZX the 2nd largest trading volume for BRL ... and the price did not just hold up, but even climbed by 15% (from 1.9 to 2.2 cents). Lets see what Monday brings, but maybe this is rock bottom.

[tricha]

Yes, no need for coking coal so long as no-one needs steel for cars, planes, buses, trains etc etc - Oh, and bikes! Stand by for a big run on horses and (wooden) buggies, horse fodder and buggy whips - now that would be the biggest business revival story ever!

Seriously, I thought the difference between the uses and need for coking coal versus steaming coal had been made pretty convincingly in this thread some time ago.

Seriously u have not been reading the facts.

AngloAmerican boss sees coal mines closing at a rate of one a fortnight
Date
September 18, 2014
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Amanda Saunders


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The market is in oversupply and "if the price is not north of $US150, you've got stress right across the industry," Mr Cutifani says. Photo: Louise Kennerley
AngloAmerican chief Mark Cutifani said he expects metallurgical coalmines will be mothballed at a rate of one every two or three weeks around the world until enough supply has fallen out of the beleaguered sector to drive a price recovery.


AngloAmerican is Australia's *second-biggest producer of metallurgical coal, and last week announced it was putting its Peace River coalmine in British Columbia, Canada, on care and maintenance, citing poor prices for the commodity.


Mr Cutifani expected other pro*ducers around the globe, including in Australia, to follow suit, saying: "I suspect others will have to do fairly similar moves to keep themselves whole."




Piles of the stuff: AngloAmerican's Moura coal mine in Queensland. Photo: Vismedia
Hard coking coal spot prices have fallen to about $US115 a tonne from well over $US300 in the heady days of 2011.


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The market is in oversupply and Mr Cutifani said: "If the price is not north of $US150, you've got stress right across the industry.


"We've been seeing some pro*duction come out of the market, 20 to 30 million tonnes.


"We've dropped another 2.5 million tonnes out of the met coal market with the closure of Peace River. I think you are going to continue to see some of those announcements, maybe once every two or three weeks.


"It won't make much of a difference this side of the year end, but as we go into next year, I am hoping it will start to make a difference."


He said more than 50 million tonnes would need to disappear from the *global market "to have any sort of meaning".


"I think everybody is doing it tough in met coal, even the markets and our customers are saying there needs to be a higher met coal price, but people keep throwing volume into the market.


"So, at the end of the day, until production that is not making money starts to be turned off, prices will remain tight." Peace River is AngloAmerican's only met coal operation outside *Australia, where it has six mines, mainly in Queensland.


Mr Cutifani stressed that Anglo*American was in metallurgical coal for the long haul, and although they mining giant had fielded approaches for its Australian operations, it was not a seller.


AngloAmerican had shaved $US20 a tonne from costs across its coal operations, "turning our business into one of the most competitive in the world".


Mr Cutifani said many of his compe*titors were staying open because they were caught by take-or-pay rail contracts, which require miners to pay a fixed amount for a certain tonnage of coal, regardless of whether they ship it or not.


"There are those that are losing a lot of money hanging in there because of their take-or-pay contracts [but] at some point they wind out, and guys will have to make tough calls," he said.


He said the end-game was for AngloAmerican to emerge from the current malaise with greater market share, after less viable producers had been forced out.


"We still think it's a good long-term business but at the moment, like in iron ore, there is more volume than the market can digest," Mr Cutifani said.


On announcing its mothballing of Peace River last week, AngloAmerican said it planned to restart the operation when the market improved. In Australia, about 12,000 jobs have been cut from the broader coal sector following a string of mine closures.






Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/minin...#ixzz3LlsvV7Nw

[tricha]

Where does Bathurst fit into the scheme of production???

answers would be appreciated.

BHP defies coal gloom with opening of Caval Ridge mine in Bowen Basin
THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 13, 2014 5:09PM
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Sarah-Jane Tasker


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https://plus.google.com/109975179297660562731/


Tony Abbott receives a gift at the opening of the Caval Ridge coal mine. Picture: Liam Kidston. Source: News Corp Australia
BHP Billiton has defied the coal gloom and, with Tony Abbott’s help, officially opened its $US3.4 billion Caval Ridge coal mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.


Australia’s coal sector is struggling with low prices and tough market conditions and last week it was hit with a new tariff for imports into China, fuelling talk of more job cuts and mine closures.


BHP has not been immune to the downturn and only last month announced it was axing 700 jobs from its Queensland coal operations, which it said at the time would enable the company to reduce costs and remain viable for the long-term.


But today it celebrated the opening of a new mine, which was brought in ahead of schedule and under budget.


BHP coal president Dean Dalla Valle noted that the company had recently made some “difficult decisions” to ensure its coal operations remained sustainable.


“We are confident that if we maintain our productivity focus then we will continue to have a globally competitive business that will provide employment opportunities for generations to come,” he said.


The mine, part of the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance, created 500 new jobs. More than 30,000 people applied for around 950 roles at Caval Ridge and its sister mine Daunia.


The Caval Ridge workforce, which commutes from Cairns and Brisbane, includes 21 per cent females and three per cent indigenous workers. In addition, 43 per cent of employees are new to the industry.


The mine, which is the eighth BMA operation in the region, will initially produce up to 5.5 million tonnes per annum of metallurgical coal.


“Today’s opening of the Caval Ridge mine is a significant milestone for BHP Billiton,” Mr Dalla Valle said.


“The operation will produce metallurgical coal for the steel industry and has been constructed with the latest technology to be one of the most productive, sustainable and highly performing metallurgical coal mines in the world.”


Opening the mine, the Prime Minister said he was disappointed that China was to impose a tariff on coal imports.


He said it highlighted the importance of the free trade agreement Australia was seeking with China.


“ I very much hope we can land it (FTA) at, or before, the G20 in Brisbane next month,” Mr Abbott said.


BHP’s Mr Dalla Valle recently outlined that the mining major plans to boost coking coal production through productivity gains. Any new expansion options, however, would need to compete with BHP’s oil, potash and copper growth plans.


The miner’s coking coal-dominated coal unit is coming to the end of a long expansion process approved during the boom that has contributed to depressed prices for the commodity used in steelmaking.


Of BHPs four “pillars” identified by chief executive Andrew Mackenzie (iron ore, coal, oil and gas, while copper and potash could prove to be a fifth), coal has been the only one to have no new expansion funding approved in recent years.


Mr Mackenzie has previously outlined that all projects would have to compete for BHP’s investment capital, which is capped at $US14bn a year, and that preferred projects will have a rate of return of more than 20 per cent.


In Queensland, coking coal expansion options include a second underground longwall at the Broadmeadow mine, the Wards Well underground longwall, expanding the Caval Ridge mine or even restarting, on a lower-cost basis, the Norwich Park mine closed in 2012 because it was unprofitable.

[tony64peter]

Tricha WHAT A LOT OF EMOTIONAL DRIBBLE. Merry Xmas any way. T

[biker]

This article was written 3 months ago. Lots more closures since then. All good. Near the bottom of the cycle. (The only time to buy comommodities/miners, etc. (and airlines) IMO )
On a risk/reward basis, the time to buy BRL certainly wont be when coking coal is well north of $200 a tonne
I think the following comments from the article are actually quite encouraging.

Seriously u have not been reading the facts.

AngloAmerican boss sees coal mines closing at a rate of one a fortnight
Date
September 18, 2014

AngloAmerican is Australia's second-biggest producer of metallurgical coal,
"We've been seeing some production come out of the market, 20 to 30 million tonnes.

"We've dropped another 2.5 million tonnes out of the met coal market with the closure of Peace River. I think you are going to continue to see some of those announcements, maybe once every two or three weeks.

"It won't make much of a difference this side of the year end, but as we go into next year, I am hoping it will start to make a difference."

"I think everybody is doing it tough in met coal, even the markets and our customers are saying there needs to be a higher met coal price, but people keep throwing volume into the market.

Mr Cutifani stressed that Anglo American was in metallurgical coal for the long haul, and although they mining giant had fielded approaches for its Australian operations, it was not a seller.

"There are those that are losing a lot of money hanging in there because of their take-or-pay contracts [but] at some point they wind out, and guys will have to make tough calls," he said.

"We still think it's a good long-term business but at the moment, like in iron ore, there is more volume than the market can digest," Mr Cutifani said.

On announcing its mothballing of Peace River last week, AngloAmerican said it planned to restart the operation when the market improved.

[Billy Boy]

Meantime BRL can remain cash flow positive on the domestic market alone.
It's a long term hold.
BB

[Flugenbear]

Meantime BRL can remain cash flow positive on the domestic market alone.
It's a long term hold.
BB

My concern is how long will they remain cashflow positive?
The price of thermal coal has been decreasing and their thermal coal contracts are not all long term....will these be renewed and at what price?
Personally I think BRL will need to raise cash to survive.....

[tony64peter]

My concern is how long will they remain cashflow positive?
The price of thermal coal has been decreasing and their thermal coal contracts are not all long term....will these be renewed and at what price?
Personally I think BRL will need to raise cash to survive.....

I would imagine whoever produces thermal coal closest to their end user has a significant advantage with regard to transport costs in NZ. BRL is geographically well placed with respect to its customers. I doubt any other miner would supply cheaper than BRL. So current pricings will remain above international levels. Importing coal to NZ is a no brainer.