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The Australian-headquartered miner said the West Virginia and Virginia mines, which together contribute almost all of its coal production, will resume because of "consistent demand from our US domestic and Asian customers" that have in turn reduced its stockpiles in the past two months.
It had idled the mines at the end of March due to the coronavirus-induced economic downturn in Europe, Brazil and the US. Low demand in preceding months had increased the stockpiles to 750,000 tonnes.
"We are restarting production at Buchanan and Logan at levels that are in line with demand from these key markets," Coronado CEO and managing director Gerry Spindler noted. He added that production at both will likely continue through the rest of the year.
One Coronado asset that will not restart is the Greenbrier mine in West Virginia. Spindler noted the company will be assessing demand regularly to determine when it could restart.
All of Coronado's coal complexes produce metallurgical coal. Buchanan includes one underground mine, the Logan mine has one surface and two underground operations, and Greenbrier has one underground mine and two highwall sections.
