Whitehaven faces high $A, weak coal prices WHITEHAVEN Coal is looking to find more cost savings as the miner battles weak coal prices and a high local currency. "We are obviously operating in an environment where we are seeing continuingly weak prices in both thermal and met coal," Whitehaven managing director Paul Flynn said during a conference call on Tuesday. That is continuing to provide a challenging environment in which to operate. Mr Flynn said the high Australian dollar, which has been above parity with the US dollar since June 2012, also represented a challenge for the company. The company expected production from its mines for the full 2012/13 year to be in line with market consensus of nine million tonnes (Mt). Whitehaven's run-of-mine coal production was 2.551 Mt in the March quarter, up 99 per cent from the prior corresponding period. Run-of-mine coal is coal that has not been graded for quality or size. Saleable coal rose 121 per cent to 2.311 Mt. Mr Flynn said the price of metallurgical coal was about $US113 a tonne in the March quarter and he expected prices to improve slightly in the June quarter before moderating in the September quarter. Thermal coal prices were tipped to remain flat. Mr Flynn said Whitehaven was going through the second stage of an operational review, which was designed to "draw out efficiencies rather than just cost reductions" across the whole company and not just at the mines. "We suspect that this project will go over a series of quarters as we look to refine and optimise the operations of every level of the business," Mr Flynn said. We are continuing to drive down our costs. Mr Flynn, who took over from Tony Haggarty in February, said he was hopeful of getting final approvals for the proposed Maules Creek mine soon. "We are led to believe that at the moment we are weeks, rather than months, away from receiving what has been obviously an eagerly awaited and much delayed approval to commence construction of the Maules Creek site," Mr Flynn said. At 1427 AEST, Whitehaven was down 1.25 cents at $1.9475.