Mongolian coking coal miner SouthGobi Resources has announced that it has resumed mining at Ovoot Tolgoi mine on March 22 and plans to produce 3.2 million of soft-coking coal during the rest of 2013.
SouthGobi Resources produced 1.33 million mt of raw coal in 2012, decreasing by 70 percent compared to the previous year. The decrease in production was primarily due to the curtailment of the company's mining operations in the last three quarters of the year.
According to South Gobi Resources, mining activities at the Ovoot Tolgoi mine were curtailed to varying degrees in the second quarter of 2012, with mining fully halted at the end of the second quarter. The company did not report any coal production in the second half of the year.
During 2012, the miner sold 1.33 million mt of coal at an average realized selling price of $47.76/mt compared to sales of 4.02 million mt of coal at an average realized selling price of $54.03/mt in 2011. The company's average realized selling price was negatively impacted by the softening of the inland China coking coal markets, which are the markets closest to SouthGobi's operations, throughout 2012.
In 2012, SouthGobi Resources recorded a net loss of $103 million compared to a net income of $57.7 million in 2011.