Source: http://www.miningweekly.com                              Date: 21 October, 2010

SouthGobi Resources, which is listed in Toronto and Hong Kong, now expects to sell about 1.5 million tons of coal in the second half of this year, after saying earlier it expected second half sales would be around the 875,000 tons sold in the first six months. The company had warned in August that some of its high-sulphur coal being mined was less attractive to buyers and might need to be stockpiled until the firm was able to process it or blending opportunities came up. Now it says it has successfully been processing the coal through basic screening, and has confirmed it can sell the processed material.

"The company is now rapidly increasing its screening capacity and expects to have four screens operating by the end of October," SouthGobi said. As a result, and despite third-quarter sales of less than 200,000 tons, the company has raised its guidance significantly for the total second half of the year. "SouthGobi has set new records for its daily shipping rate in October and has already sold in excess of 400 000 tons for the month to date," the firm reported.