BHP, Xstrata’s Cerrejon Coal Mine Says CEO Teicher Resigns
Cerrejon LLC CEO Leon Teicher
Alejandra Parra/Bloomberg
Leon Teicher, chief executive officer of Cerrejon LLC, Colombia's biggest coal mining enterprise.
Leon Teicher, chief executive officer of Cerrejon LLC, Colombia's biggest coal mining enterprise. Photographer: Alejandra Parra/Bloomberg
Cerrejon, the world’s largest open- pit mine of coal for export, said Chief Executive Officer Leon Teicher resigned, effective Dec. 31.
Teicher, who has been the Colombian mine’s CEO since May 2006, is leaving for personal reasons, according to an e-mailed company statement today. Melbourne-based BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s largest mining company; London-based Anglo American Plc (AAL) and Zug, Switzerland-based Xstrata Plc (XTA) each own 33.3 percent of Cerrejon.
Teicher oversaw the design of a $1.3 billion plan announced last month to expand production at Cerrejon to 40 million metric tons in 2017 from 32.5 million tons this year. Under Teicher, the mine in the northern Colombian province of La Guajira made its first shipments of coal to China last year.
Cerrejon, Drummond Co. and MPX Energia SA, the energy company controlled by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista, are among companies investing in coal production in Colombia, South America’s largest supplier of the commodity.
The price of coal will probably hold near current levels for years, aided by demand in China, Europe and Latin America, Teicher said Aug. 24 in Bogota. A second expansion now being studied at Cerrejon may push output to 60 million tons.
Benchmark European coal prices with settlement next year slid 10 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $128.65 a metric ton today, according to broker prices compiled by Bloomberg.
Colombia’s coal production this year probably will meet or surpass 80 million tons even after storms hindered output, according to Energy and Mines Minister Carlos Rodado. Colombia produced 74.4 million tons last year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Walsh at hlwalsh@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net
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