Source: SouthGobi Resources                          Date: 31 March, 2011

Canadian coal miner South Gobi Resources Ltd. has posted a narrower quarterly loss, as it sold more minerals at a higher price, and says it sees further improvement in prices in the first quarter. The company, which owns the Ovoot Tolgoi Mine and two development projects in Mongolia, expects first-quarter average realized selling price per ton to rise by half, sequentially. It sees sales to exceed the previous comparable quarter's 426,000 tons, but to be lower sequentially.

The miner, which sells metallurgical and thermal coal to customers in China, sold 1.5 million tons at an average realized price of USD32 per ton in the quarter, up from sales of 0.36 million tons at USD29 per ton last year. For the October-December quarter, the company posted a net loss of USD28.7 million against last year's USD69.2 million. Revenue quadrupled to USD41.6 million.