Avalanches Affect Coal Production for Teck Resources

Teck Resources a Vancouver based mining company said that avalanches in the Rogers Pass area of British Columbia will affect its first quarter sales figures for coal.

Teck has six coal mines in Western Canada and would have been well placed to make substantial profits on high coal prices relating to the floods in Australia.

Unfortunately an avalanche warning from Canadian Pacific Railway lines and a mechanical failure at the Westshore Terminals in Delta has forced it to revise its own coal guidance for the first quarter of 2011. Their shipments have been already delayed by trains held up due to avalanches. Canadian Pacific Railway has been forced to declare force majeure on Monday because of the prevailing avalanche conditions.

Teck Recources are now looking at coal sales in the range of 5 – 5.5 million tonnes as compared to the 5.25 million tonnes that they sold in the first quarter of 2010. They have also slowed down on the re-commissioning of a coal dryer at its Greenhills Mine near Elkford, B.C.

Teck Resources said that it expected sales for 2011 to be in the range of 24.5 million to 25.5 million tonnes of coal. A company statement said that the foregoing estimates assume no interruption of production due to labour disturbances, and a reasonably prompt resumption of normal levels of rail service.