The best that can be said of the market capitalisation bloodshed released by Whitehaven Coal’s revised production guidance is that it arrived in nearly equal proportion to the miner’s downgrade.

Whitehaven warned the market that a bizarre coalition of circumstances at its biggest but still maturing operation, the once controversial Maules Creek mine near the NSW rural centre of Gunnedah, meant that financial year 2020 production could fall 7-15 per cent shy of standing guidance.