Document Actions
Spring Creek Mining Company joint venture gears up to lift coal output
27 June 2007 - The Spring Creek Mining Company joint venture has been approved by the Overseas Investment Office with Cargill Coal taking a 49% investment in the mine.
Solid Energy, which holds a 51% shareholding in the joint venture, told its mine staff that all agreements and required authorisations are now in place. As the operator, Solid Energy continues to employ all 140 staff.
In March, Solid Energy announced it had secured Cargill’s commitment, helping secure a long-term future for the mine provided it continues to meet development and production targets.
Solid Energy said all effort at Spring Creek is currently devoted to development -upgrading and repositioning underground processing machinery, tunnelling to give access to more than 3 million tonnes of coal and upgrading the nearby washery to provide a low ash, low sulphur product for international thermal and steel making markets. Over the next three years, the joint venture will invest $25 million in new equipment.
Production is planned to resume around the end of the year and is expected to produce around 65,000 tonnes a month (about 800,000 tonnes a year).
Solid Energy will market the mine’s coal in New Zealand and both parties will jointly market it into the international market. Export coal will be transported by rail to Lyttelton, the port near Christchurch. Cargill will transport coal to its international customers using its ocean transport business.
Source: Solid Energy
