"While our current focus is very much on our existing mines as well as our Maules Creek and Vickery Projects, we remain confident of the long-term value of our development assets,'' Mr Haggarty said. ''As global coal prices improve we will continually revisit the status of our development plans.'' One sharemarket analyst speaking off the record said Whitehaven had flagged cost reductions and the cuts to centralised, head-office functions like business development were typical in the wake of a merger. ''It's nothing big, 10 people,'' the analyst said. ''When you join two companies you can strip out corporate costs. We had already modelled in a couple million dollars of cost savings.''