Insider Media Limited

UK Coal, which has operations across the Midlands, has disposed of land in Staffordshire to reduce its levels of debt. The company said it sold a total of 1,500 acres of land for £10.5m in the first quarter of 2011.

The sell-off comes weeks after the company reported an "unacceptable" £124.6m loss for 2010.

The disposals, including 279 acres from its Sandy Lane site in Staffordshire, have been "applied to reduce overall levels of debt", the company said. It said net debt stood at £220.7m at the end of the first quarter of 2011 - compared to £242.4m at December 2010.

The Doncaster-headquartered company confirmed plans to renew and extend certain bank facilities since the year end with Lloyds Banking Group its sole bank by replacing GE Capital for one-third of its revolving credit facility. It has also extended the maturity of a £10m loan facility with Peel Holdings.

In an interim management statement covering the period from 26 December 2010 to 13 May 2011, the company said: "Production in the first quarter to the end of March was steady and in line with expectations at 2.1 million tonnes (2010: 1.0 million tonnes), of which 1.6 million tonnes was from deep mines (2010: 0.8 million tonnes) and 0.5 million tonnes was from surface mines (2010: 0.2 million tonnes).

"The installation of the new faces at both Kellingley and Thoresby has progressed well and both are now ready for operation. As previously announced, we have extended the life of the current panel at Daw Mill by several months to offset the risk of delay in the installation of its new panel."

Last month, UK Coal reported a pre-tax loss of £124.6m for 2010 in what the company called a "further year of poor operational performance".