A sign adorns the building where Australian miner South32 has their office in Perth, Western Australia, November 19, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies South32 Ltd FollowOct 23 (Reuters) - Diversified miner South32 (S32.AX) posted an 18% drop in first-quarter metallurgical coal output on Monday, as production was affected by disruptions at its Illawarra project in New South Wales. South32, the world's biggest producer of manganese, is facing operational headwinds at its Illawarra Metallurgical Coal project after the miner undertook an extended planned longwall move at the Dendrobium mine. The Perth-based miner said production of metallurgical coal, used to make steel, fell to 1.0 million metric tons in the three months to Sept. 30, from 1.3 million metric tons a year earlier. That was slightly lower than a consensus estimate of 1.1 million metric tons compiled by Visible Alpha.

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Persons: South32, David Gray, John Biju, Roushni Nair, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: REUTERS, South32, Illawarra Metallurgical Coal, Alpha, Thomson Locations: Perth, Western Australia, New South Wales, Illawarra, Dendrobium, Bengaluru