The international price for hard coking coal has plummeted after rising more than $US25 per tonne over the last two months.
The price reached $US99.50 per tonne a fortnight ago. It dropped $2 per tonne last week and is down another $6 a tonne this week, to $91.50.
The latest fall is bad news for Solid Energy, which is for sale, and for Bathurst Resources which has put its Escarpment Mine at Denniston on the West Coast into care and maintenance until the price rises.
Bathurst has said the price needs to stabilise at or above $100 per tonne to make Escarpment viable.
- Westport News
