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Solid Energy outlines expansion plans at major mines
10 November 2004 - Solid Energy, in the company's 2004 annual report, has outlined plans for expansion of coal production from its Spring Creek and Stockton Plateau mines in the South Island and at its Huntly mines in the North Island.
The company is also undertaking an extensive exploration programme to confirm future economically recoverable reserves to ensure continuity of coal supply to customers. Solid Energy currently has around 48 million tonnes of reserves. A further 4.1 billion tonnes of resources need further investigation to confirm that they are economically viable to mine.
At the Spring Creek underground mine north of Greymouth an extensive drilling programme is underway with the aim of expanding operations to produce 1.5 million tonnes a year within three years.
At the Stockton plateau, the main source of New Zealand’s export coking coal, production was up 11% to 1.74 million tonnes in the June 2004 year from the previous year. Production is scheduled reach 2 million tonnes in 2005, which is the capacity of the aerial ropeway down off the plateau to the Ngakawau rail terminal. Further work is being undertaken on coal transport options to take production to 2.5 million tonnes a year.
Work is underway to develop the planned Cypress opencast mine in the Upper Waimangaroa valley on the plateau.
The Rotowaro opencast mine near Huntly produced a record 1.18 million tonnes compared to 1.13 million tonnes in 2003. Resource consents were granted for the new Awaroa 4 opencast pit while contracts were signed with Henry Walker Eltin Ltd for development and operation of the pit. The 11 million tonne Awaroa 4 mine, which has a progected life of eight years is a very deep pit with multiple coal seams. Several seams have been mined by underground methods previously so the mine will present many challenges.
Investment in new and upgraded plant was continuing at the Huntly East underground mine. This would underpin an increase of production to 600,000 tonnes a year from the 2004 record production of 464,000 tonnes.
