Cockatoo faces further uncertainty

Australian coal company, Cockatoo Coal, continues to face significant uncertainty over its future, after the Queensland state government said it would reassess the company’s environmental bonding requirements.

Cockatoo Coal recently reported a loss of AUS$105.7 million for the six months to December 2015. It and several of its subsidiaries entered voluntary administration last November. In May, it finalised an agreement with its creditors, allowing it to leave administration.

Currently the company has total environmental bonds in place of AUS$34.4 million. Should the Queensland government require further bonding, there is “significant uncertainty” as to whether Cockatoo has the financial capacity to meet such demands or to raise additional funding.

The company reported cash and cash equivalents of AUS$17.98 million at 31 December, down from AUS$24.84 million at the end of June.

Cockatoo’s main asset, the Baralaba coal mine in Queensland, remains in care and maintenance, after the company’s administrators shuttered it in February to reduce operating costs.

The Baralaba mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin produces PCI coal. In the six months to December 2015, the mine produced 0.4 million t of ROM coal and recorded coal sales of 0.58 million t.

Edited by Jonathan Rowland.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/coal/01082016/cockatoo-faces-further-uncertainty-2016-2125/