Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN) has come out swinging against an article in The Australian published on Friday, stating the allegation the company has not reported a “coal seam collapse” is false, but that, yes, there has been a “minor roof fall … in the northern district of the Buchanan Complex in the US.”
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The company was quick to point out this does not, according to its view on the situation, constitute a “coal seam collapse.” If this is starting to feel like a philosophical position, this finance journalist agrees with you. Then again, he doesn’t work in underground coal.
“The fall was well away from the coal face, and did not amount to a ‘coal seam collapse’ … the roof has now been stabilised and production has recommenced in the northern district with immaterial production impact,” CRN clarified on Friday.
“Buchanan has dual longwalls, operating in both the northern and southern districts of the mining complex … any suggestion of a longer term material impact of this isolated incident on the Company is incorrect.”
Perhaps most interesting is that it’s taken Coronado a week to jump on this, given that there was a very similar article published five days ago by the same journalist.
Most HotCopper forum users were more interested in attacking the journalist who wrote the piece, at least one pointed out it’s taken a while for CRN to come out and respond to these allegations.
To be fair to those users, the journalist in question – The Australian‘s Bridget Carter, who for all intents and purposes is just doing her job – did rely on the often unfortunate circumstance of having to cite un-named ‘sources.’
That’s high-calibre ammunition for any critic looking to dismiss a piece of journalism, but the practice is normalised. The big takeaway is perhaps that CRN shares fell -3% in response to the news. Not great, not terrible. For those still in the coal miner investing game, no news might just be good news.
CRN last traded at 32.5cps.
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