UK Coal sees production fall

UK COAL saw coal production drop by a third in the first quarter of 2012, the company revealed today.

 

In an interim management statement for the year from January 1, the Doncaster-based mining and property group – whose largest shareholder is John Whittaker’s Peel Group – said production to the end of March was 1.4m tonnes compared to 2.1m tonnes over the same period the previous year.

 

Of the 1.4m tonnes of coal, 1m tonnes was from deep mines and 400,000 from surface mines.

 

UK Coal said production at its Daw Mill site in the West Midlands continued to be “poor”.

 

It said production at its other sites had been in line with expectations.

 

As previously reported, UK returned to profit in 2011 but has said job losses at Daw Mill are likely.