Portland cement use of Buller coal to stop

Press, 5 January 1980, Page 2

Portland cement use of Buller coal to stop

Westport reporter

The supply of Buller State coal to the Portland cement works at Whangarei will stop early this year. According to the New Zealand State . Coal Mines head salesman, Mr J. Smith, of Wellington, Portland will switch to Huntly coal ~on February!. However, there would possibly be: three to five- shipments of Bullet coal sent for stockpiling at the Portland works . after that date, Mr Smith said.' The reason was that Buller coal did not deteriorate 'on the stockpile as much as did Huntly coal. The decision by Wilsons Portland works to make the much talked-of -switch ends months of speculation. W’ith delivery about $6O a tonne to Whangarei, it was only a matter of time before the switch was made, and the prospect earlier forced the Government either to consider exports from Buller or to close the mines, the latter an embarrassing prospect in times of an international energy crisis. However, the Pbrtland decision is a bad blow to the port of Westport, .which, had an operating loss of $146,000 last year. While coal shipments totalled only 50,000 tonnes in 1979, down from the 120,000-plus tonnes of the

boom years in the early 19705, it was still welcome trade. The supply of coal to the Northland works dates back a quarter of a century when the Union Company had used specially built colliers on the run. In more recent years, Portland has been served by two vessels, the Karepo’ and Karetu, but the latter is now the only Union Company ship available for the trade. There are not likely to be any redundancies at Buller State mines as a result of the switch, even though the Government has not yet formally signed any agreement with overseas firms for the supply of Buller coal. It is likely that stockpiling will continue at Westport here until mines officials return from an overseas selling trip next month. The Government is prepared to sell 250,000 tonnes of Buller coal annually and is confident of getting - a good price for it, some of the best coal of its type in the world.

Because of the big tonnages involved, the coal will not be exported through the port of Westport, but will be railed to Lyttelton for at least two years until a decision is made on a possible alternative outlet, most probably an off-shore loading facility on the West Coast.