Corsa Coal Corp., a met coal producer based in Pennsylvania, recently reported its financial results for 2023. The company’s net income of $23.6 million for 2023 was the highest since 2017. In 2023, Corsa sold 1,082,000 tons of met coal and purchased 91,000 tons. In 2022, the company sold 960,000 tons and it purchased 132,000 tons.
“Although we were disappointed by our coal production and cash production costs in Q4 2023, our full year cash production costs per ton sold decreased from 2022 levels and we are committed to further reductions in 2024,” said Kevin Harrigan, president and CEO, Corsa Coal.
Q4 2023 proved to be another challenging quarter for Corsa Coal. The company’s Horning mine encountered adverse geology underground. An unplanned section move was made to relocate mining activities to an area with better mining conditions. The section move led to short-term production inefficiencies and changed the access point to the eastern part of the reserves.
The Acosta mine’s main development section encountered low coal heights. The section was forced to cut rock to create adequate height for access which required additional time and slowed production and the advancement of the section. Equipment availability declined due to the wear and tear that mining of the rock had on the machinery.
Those factors led to an increase in both production and maintenance costs, which will likely carry over into Q1 2024. The company said mining conditions had improved in early March. “Our operational and engineering teams are focused on advancing beyond these challenges as safely and quickly as possible,” Harrigan said.
The company’s surface mining operations achieved expected results for Q4 2023 and overburden removal is on pace for the return of the highwall mining machine in Q1 2024. The combination of traditional surface and highwall mining should increase production and lower costs.
The company’s Q1 2024 sales volumes are expected to be higher than Q4 2023, but lower than historical averages. Corsa said it already has committed sales of more than 940,000 tons.
