May 1, 2019 - U.S. western bituminous coal production totaled about 16.6 million st in the first quarter of 2019, down 4.8% from fourth quarter 2018 and up 10.7% from the year-ago quarter, Mine Safety and Health Administration data shows.

Wolverine Fuel's Sufco mine in Utah was the top producer in the quarter with total output of over 1.5 million st, up 6.7% from the previous quarter and up 33.3% from the year-ago quarter.

Sufco also had its strongest production level since the last quarter of 2017.

The Arizona-based Kayenta mine, owned and operated by Peabody Energy, produced 1.5 million st, down 6.8% from Q4 and down 1.5% from Q1 2018.

Navajo mine, based in New Mexico and owned by the Navajo Transitional Energy Company, came in third, with total production of almost 1.5 million st, up 11.1% from the prior quarter and up 258.7% from the year-ago quarter.

The largest quarter-on-quarter increase from top-producing mines came from Wolverine's Skyline #3 mine in Utah, which produced over 1.2 million st in Q1, up 100.3% from the prior quarter. Among the top producers in the western basin, Signal Peak's Bull Mountains mine had the largest drop quarter on quarter, down 46.9% with total output of nearly 1.2 million st in the first quarter of 2019.

On a state-by-state basis Utah led in production levels. The state's quarterly production totaled almost 4.2 million st, up 21.1% from the prior quarter and up 14.4% from the year-ago quarter.

Sufco mine was the state's top producer.

New Mexico production totaled over 3.7 million st, down 6.4% from Q4 and up 84.3% from the year-ago quarter. The top producing mine in the state was Navajo Mine, followed by El Segundo with nearly 1.3 million st in output.

Colorado produced nearly 3.5 million st in Q1, up 4.3% from the previous quarter and up 6.4% from the year-ago quarter.

Peabody's Twenty-Mile mine had the most production in the state, of 990,161 st, given a 14.4% increase in output quarter over quarter and a 144.1% increase from Q1 2018.

Arizona and Montana came in fifth and sixth with only the Kayenta and Bull Mountains mines, respectively.