Mineral explorer Cline Mining (TSE:CMK) said on Wednesday it is on plan to ramp-up metallurgical coal production at its New Elk Mine in southern Colorado.
Cline Mining expects to reach the initial output level of 3 million tons a year in the first quarter of 2012.
At the end of August, Cline started to drive three new rock slopes from surface down 500 feet to access the Blue seam, about 50 vertical feet below the level of the coal plant site.
The slopes are scheduled to be complete in 60 days and mining in the seam will begin with four nonstop miners from October to December this year, the company said, with two more uninterrupted coal miners to join in the first quarter of 2012.
In a statement, Cline said the six miners, organized as three super sections, will have the production capacity of 1.8 million tons of clean coal annually.
Meanwhile, current mining will continue at the Allen Mine, also in Colorado, progressing into the Apache and Allen seams with four more nonstop miners organized into 2 super sections, with a combined capacity of 1.2 million tons of clean coal, annually.
Cline said that three additional continuous miners will be mobilized to finish the implementation of the two super sections and continue mining at the full rate, according to plan.
As announced earlier this month, the company’s first metallurgical coal shipment was made into rail cars on August 9, from New Elk’s bulk rail load-out facility. The coal met the full specification grade of the property’s high quality grade coal for steelmaking purposes, it added.
The Toronto-based miner’s shares were trading up 3.92% to $2.12 Wednesday afternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
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