During Q3 2023, CONSOL Energy produced 6.1 million tons at its Pennsylvania Mining Complex (PAMC), compared to 5.3 million tons during the same period last year where it had only four longwalls operating versus all five in operation today. The company converted those tons to $431.1 million and realized an average coal sales price of $70.34/ton.
The company said it continues to leverage the quality characteristics of its PAMC product and is focusing its sales efforts on export market opportunities, particularly in the industrial and crossover metallurgical markets. Export sales accounted for 60% of the company’s total revenue during Q3 2023 with 38% of total revenue coming from the export industrial market and 14% from export metallurgical sales.
“Our ongoing pivot into the export markets continued during [Q3 2023], as the majority of our revenue was generated from sales into the seaborne markets and non-power generation industries,” said Jimmy Brock, CEO of CONSOL Energy. “From an operational standpoint, in just nine months, our CONSOL Marine Terminal (CMT) has achieved a year-to-date throughput level of 14.2 million tons. We also advanced our contracting progress during the quarter and have improved our 2024 and 2025 sales books to 21.5 million tons and 10.8 million tons, respectively.” For the third quarter of 2023, throughput volume at the CMT was 4.3 million tons, compared to 2.7 million tons in the year-ago period.
Brock highlighted zero employee year-to-date reportable incidents at the Bailey prep plant, Itmann prep plant and CMT. “Our year-to-date total recordable incident rate across our coal mining segment was approximately 40% below the national average for underground bituminous coal mines,” Brock said.
The company said the Itmann Mining Complex showed improved performance on a sequential basis during Q3 2023, producing 91,000 tons of coal, compared to 70,000 tons in Q2 2023. Year-to-date, it has produced 225,000 tons of coal. During Q3 2023, all three super sections were mining additional height for mains development and long term viability of the coal mine. This requires cutting some rock, which slows the mining rates to some extent.
“Although all three continuous miner super sections are installed underground, we are currently operating two of the three as true super sections as we continue to work toward fully staffing the mine,” Brock said. “Once the mains development is complete, we will be able to operate the three super sections in specific blocks of the coal reserves at more efficient mining heights, which should improve our production rates and deliver reduced cost.”
Based on its current contracted position, estimated prices and production plans, CONSOL has targeted 2023 PAMC coal sales of 25.5-26.5 million tons and Itmann production to be 300,000 to 400,000 tons.
