Whitehaven boss Paul Flynn believes the worst is probably over for coal prices as demand for Australia's second largest export catches up with supply.
Mr Flynn said coal prices could lift 10 per cent from their current lows in the next 12 months.
"From our analysis of the supply and demand around the world it does look like we are very close to balanced," he told reporters after Whitehaven's annual general meeting on Tuesday.
"We are not projecting a massive return to the heydays of three years ago but we are foreseeing some improvement in price in the order of 10 per cent over the next 12 months."
Thermal coal prices have dropped to about $US75 a tonne this year, down from $US140 a tonne at the start of 2011, due to excess supply.
That has hurt coal producers like Whitehaven, which has posted net losses for the past two financial years.
Mr Flynn also hit out at opponents of the company's controversial Maules Creek coal mine, especially protesters that had entered the site in an effort to disrupt work.
"They are doing something illegal here...these people are getting in the way of our employees, average people who are just trying to come to work and do their job," he said.
"Now I'm not quite sure what right they think they have to be able to interfere with our employees coming to do their work on a daily basis."
Production is currently ramping up at Maules Creek, with the first coal due to leave in January.
Chairman Mark Vaile told shareholders the project would help transform the company into Australia's largest, independent, listed coal company.
Protesters staged a demonstration outside the Whitehaven's AGM, accusing the company of ignoring local Aboriginal people's objections to the project.
The company also faced questions from Greenpeace and representatives of Pacific Islander communities concerned about the effects of coal on climate change.
But Mr Flynn said the high quality of coal from the Maules Creek mine had a role to play in alleviating greenhouse gas emissions.
He said coal was widely expected to remain the world's dominant energy source for the foreseeable future and was considerably cheaper than renewable alternatives, which meant it had a role to play in the economic development of China and India.
But he said global demand for cleaner coal, as well as carbon capture technology, which is now being used commercially in Canada, was the best way to address climate change.
"I put it to you, that coal may well be the only form of energy that can materially address the man-made contributions to climate change," he told shareholders.
Whitehaven shares were flat at $1.53 at 1532 AEDT.
Share
