BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA), a joint venture of Australian miner BHP Billiton and Japan's Mitsubishi, has announced that it will halt production at its Gregory open-cut coal mine, a part of the Gregory Crinum complex in Queensland, Australia.
The company decided to shut down the operations since the Gregory open-cut mine production was no longer profitable in the current economic environment of falling prices, high costs and a strong Australian dollar. However, the Crinum underground mine will continue to operate along with the Gregory coal handling preparation plant.
According to BMA's statement, production costs for the open-cut Gregory mine currently exceed the revenue from product sales, and therefore the only option available to the company was to cease production.