8 January 2017

ASX announcement: Production and sales update

ASX announcement – 9 January 2017

Whitehaven Coal Limited (ASX:WHC) is issuing revised production guidance for its Narrabri longwall operation but remains on track to achieve its group 2017 saleable production guidance of 21Mt to 22Mt.

New full year ROM coal guidance for Narrabri is in the range of 7.5Mt to 7.8Mt. Whitehaven last issued production guidance for Narrabri at the FY2016 results in August 2016.

The revised guidance arises from production impacts associated with safely managing a discrete area of adverse geotechnical conditions at the mine.

Mining in panel LW06 at Narrabri is expected to be completed in early March with production scheduled to commence in LW07 panel (the first 400 metre wide panel) early in the June quarter.

Notwithstanding this revision and production impacts caused by wet weather earlier in the year, Whitehaven remains on target to achieve its FY2017 saleable production guidance range.

Further, metallurgical coal sales in the December quarter were 22% of total sales compared to 16% in the September quarter. Sales of metallurgical coal in the second half of the year are forecast to grow to 26% of total group sales consistent with the target of achieving 35% of total group sales when Maules Creek reaches full capacity.

Whitehaven will release its December quarter production report on 16 January 2017 and its half year financial results on 17 February 2017.

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