Perth (Platts)--7Feb2012/414 am EST/914 GMT

Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Xstrata said Tuesday that heavy rainfall in the Australian state of New South Wales over the past week has not caused large-scale disruption to their coal mining operations in the Hunter Valley coal field.

The companies are among the largest coal producers in Australia, and account for most of the thermal and semi-soft coking coal exported through Newcastle port in New South Wales. The port shipped out 114 million mt of coal in 2011.

Anglo American said that with regard to its coal mining operations in New South Wales and Queensland: "We have experienced a typical wet season with no unexpected impacts on production."

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The company operates five coal mines in Queensland -- the Capcoal, Dawson, Foxleigh and Moranbah North metallurgical coal mines and the Callide thermal coal mine -- and the Drayton open-cut thermal coal mine in New South Wales.

Meanwhile, the coal producer said that "work has safely resumed" at its 88%-owned Moranbah North coking coal mine, without revealing an exact restart date. The mine was shut November 7 after the roof collapsed. The mine in the northern Bowen Basin coal field produces 4.5 million mt/year of high fluidity hard coking coal for export customers in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, according to the company's website.

Rio Tinto said Tuesday its customers were continuing to receive cargoes from its coal operations in New South Wales.

When asked if the company had declared a force majeure on product from any of its New South Wales coal mines, a Rio Tinto spokesman replied: "No there hasn't been. We will advise the market if that has taken place."

Rio Tinto has interests in four coal mines in the Hunter Valley, operated by its 80%-owned subsidiary Coal & Allied Industries which exports about 25 million mt/year of mostly thermal coal, according to a recent company production report. Xstrata which operates 13 coal mines in New South Wales such as Bulga, Mangoola and Ravensworth said its coal production was unaffected by recent heavy rains in the state.

"I can confirm that there has been no overall production reduction as a result of the rain, with no force majeure declared due to wet weather and flooding in the past week," Xstrata Coal spokeswoman Lisa Rippon-Lee said in an emailed response Tuesday.

Meanwhile, coal train services were operating normally in the Hunter Valley region, a spokesman for Australian Rail Track Corp. which operates a rail system connecting around 30 coal mines to the Newcastle port, said Tuesday.

According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, parts of the Hunter Valley coal field area received up to 180 mm of rainfall in the seven days to 9 am Australian Eastern Standard Time Tuesday (2200 GMT Monday), compared with up to 70 mm in the previous seven days.

--Mike Cooper, michael_cooper@platts.com

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