Wesfarmers Ltd’s forecast production for its Curragh mine has been cut by the company because of the recent rainfall and mechanical difficulties.

The unseasonal rainfall produced inflows of ground water into the mining zones, consequently affecting the production at the Bowen Basin.

The operations at Curragh North Conveyor are expected to discontinue for a week as a belt failure affected its production.

Wesfarmers now estimates its metallurgical coal sales volume for fiscal 2011 to be between 5.1 million and 5.4 million tonnes. This is far from the forecast made last April 4 which included a rangenof 5.8 million to 6.2 million tonnes. Even before Queensland's floods in December and January,

Wesfarmers had already estimated sales volume of 6.0 million to 6.5 million tonnes.

According to Stewart Butel, managing director of Wesfarmers Resources, the groundwater inflow caused by certain weather issues had continued to affect its production since early April. Moreover, the May 22 belt failure further has slumped its operations.

"We are continuing to de-water the affected areas and now expect operations to return to full production from July 2011," Butel said.
Wesfarmers' shares were 0.84 per cent lower to $32.82 around 1024 AEST.