Cerrejon LLC, Colombia’s largest coal producer, expects to produce 32
million metric tons of coal a year in 2009 and 2010, up from 31.5
million metric tons in 2008, the company’s top official said Tuesday.
The company has submitted to his shareholders an expansion plan to
boost annual output to 40 million metric tons, Leon Teicher, Cerrejon’s
chief executive, told reporters on the sidelines of a presentation on
the company’s social projects.
The expansion plan, if approved, would gradually boost the total production planned starting in two or three years, he said.
Cerrejon exports its entire production.
The open-pit mine, located in the Guajira province in Colombia’s
northeastern tip, had announced a 31 million ton target for 2008.
Teicher declined to give data on the amount of money raised from
Cerrejon’s sales, though he said the company managed to get average
prices for its coal.
Teicher said Cerrejon is still profitable even though coal prices fell.
“We focus in being one of the producers with lowest costs in the
world.”
Coal is Colombia’s second-largest legal export behind oil and processed
oil products. Coal sales abroad brought in $5.04 billion in 2008, up
from $3.49 billion a year earlier.
Colombia is Latin America’s largest coal producer and the world’s tenth
largest. Coal producers exported 63.5 million tons in 2008.
London-listed Xstrata PLC, Anglo American PLC and BHP Billiton PLC each own 33.3% of Cerrejon. (Dow Jones)