Anglo American shares dipped on Monday after the mining giant announced a fire at its Grosvenor steelmaking coal mine in Queensland, Australia.
The company was forced to suspend operations following an underground coal gas ignition incident on 29 June 2024. The mine is likely to be offline for an extended period which will raise concerns about production targets.
Anglo American shares started the session down about 4% before rallying steadily through the session to trade 1.9% down at the time of writing.
In the first half of 2024, the company anticipated producing approximately 8 million tonnes of product, with Grosvenor contributing a substantial 2.3 million tonnes to this total. The full-year production guidance for 2024 was set at 15 to 17 million tonnes, with Grosvenor expected to yield about 3.5 million tonnes.
These projections are now in jeopardy. The Grosvenor mine’s contribution was already expected to decrease in the second half of 2024 due to a planned longwall move. The current suspension, however, introduces a new level of uncertainty to the production outlook.
