Reuters |
Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:50
[miningmx.com] -- Mining group Anglo American Plc could double its production of coal used for steel making by 2018 if all of its unapproved projects went ahead, the company said on Wednesday.
The future growth in metallurgical coal is focused around its existing properties in Queensland, Australia, Ian Cockerill, chief executive of Anglo's coal unit, told a mining conference hosted by investment bank Credit Suisse .
Anglo's seaborne metallurgical coal output was 15 million tonnes last year and a presentation on Anglo's website showed potential output rising to over 30 million tonnes by 2018.
Anglo is the world's fourth-largest producer of both met coal and thermal coal used in power plants.
The world economic downturn has had a limited impact on coal-fired power generation and in 2009 China is expected to become a net importer of thermal coal, Anglo
said.
Anglo -- the world's fourth-biggest diversified mining group by market value -- also has a pipeline of projects in thermal coal, which could lead to a 6 percent rate of compounded annual growth until 2018, the presentation said.
A graph showed Anglo's potential attributable output in seaborne thermal coal growing to over 50 million tonnes by 2018 from 36 million in 2008.
Most of Anglo's thermal coal output is from South Africa but it also has operations in Colombia and Australia.